Feelings on loop strong at hearing
DENHAM SPRINGS — Sentiment ran strongly at a public hearing Wednesday night against the proposed routes of the Baton Rouge Loop.
In the largest of the latest round of hearings, public officials and private citizens voiced concern about traffic congestion, but raised a louder concern about the impact that loop routes would have on communities.
“We all know we need traffic relief, but I’m not sure this is the way we need to go,” state Rep. J. Rogers Pope, R-Denham Springs, said at the hearing attended by more than 125 people.
Rival suggested projects such as extending Hooper Road across the Amite River and extending Juban Road to the north “are much more viable alternatives,” Pope said.
Walker Mayor Bobby Font said widening existing roads such as U.S. 190 would do more for the parish’s traffic problems than the loop.
“If they came in tomorrow and built the loop, the people of Livingston Parish couldn’t get to it” because existing roads are too clogged with vehicles, Font said.
Parish President Mike Grimmer said the proposed routes would “rip the heart out” of Livingston, one of the fastest-growing parishes in the state.
Livingston Parish Councilman Marshal Harris said he is against the loop routes being proposed, but said a route that ran farther north wouldn’t adversely affect so many people.
The proposed northern routes of the loop aren’t acceptable, said Robert Harrison, a Livingston Parish lawyer.
Harrison also said he wouldn’t oppose a route that ran farther north through timber company land.
As currently proposed, the northern routes “cut Watson in half” or go through the area where the new Live Oak High School is being built, Harrison said.
Steve Wallace, one of the project managers, said one of the purposes of the current set of hearings is to gain information to maneuver the loop’s path so it does the least damage.
Impacts on specific spots such as the future high school can’t be judged by the broad swaths pictured on the map, because the final route would have a much narrower footprint, he said.
Wallace said he heard positive comments from some of the people he talked with Wednesday night.
Some people realize the need for the project, and some people are concerned about their property, he said.
The loop was proposed to reduce traffic on Interstates 10 and 12 and spur economic development.
It was first envisioned as a $4.5 billion, 85-mile roadway circling through East Baton Rouge, Livingston, West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Ascension parishes.
However, the proposal has met strong opposition in some areas, and the presidents of Livingston, Ascension and Iberville parishes resigned from the Capital Area Expressway Authority.
Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden says the project is still alive. He has focused on spurring development of the loop in East and West Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes.
The project’s team has continued working on the environmental impact statement for the loop, which would be built and operated under a public-private partnership arrangement.