By james art Not a week goes that BLDG 5 customers aren’t asking owners Misti and Brumby Broussard when the long-awaited pedestrian and bike lane near their restaurant will finally be released.
It looks like progress is coming, but the Broussards still have to answer that they don’t know the answer. It’s out of their hands.
“I’d say that’s probably a weekly question we get at the restaurant, where someone says, ‘When is this trail coming?'” says Misty. “Everyone is very excited. They ask, “Who can we call to make it faster?”
It’s been four years since Broussard, along with Varsity Sports owner Jenny Peters, Moreau Physical Therapy owner Al Moreau and Chad Hughes, co-owner of Ivar’s Sports Bar & Grill and Var’s Pizza, raised more than $40,000 to fund a land survey and a landscape plan showing what could be done to improve the area, a thriving commercial area that most agree suffers from unsightly landscaping and inadequate, dangerous parking.
The concept plan, created by CARBO Landscape Architecture, calls for a pedestrian walkway under the Perkins Road overpass connecting Reymond Avenue to Christian Street.
“This is a project that has no resistance — from the city, from the residents, from the neighborhood, from the public,” says Misty. “I think there’s huge interest because it’s just going to be used by so many different people for so many different reasons.”
Although painfully slow and held up by bureaucratic hurdles, the project has made incremental progress and it is possible that ground will be broken in the next few months. Last week, CARBO unveiled the final stage of the plans, which are about 60 percent complete, to officials from the City of Baton Rouge’s MOVEBR program, which has awarded approximately $2.7 million to the project and is managing its completion. MOVEBR prioritizes projects that reduce traffic and promote connectivity.
“We have submitted our ‘60%’ paperwork and are moving toward final construction paperwork,” says CARBO partner Shannon Blakeman. Blakeman didn’t feel comfortable speculating on a breakout timetable.
Over the past month, visitors to the area have seen what could happen in the neighborhood. Colonel’s Club owner Jordan Piazza invested in improvements to the parking lot and landscaping in front of the restaurant that are consistent with the type changes envisioned in the plan. Piazza spent more than $2 million to open the modern restaurant and improve the front parking lot and landscaping.
City of Baton Rouge Transportation and Drainage Director Fred Raiford says one of the biggest hurdles on the project is working with Kansas City Southern to build a trail over a railroad crossing under the overpass near Reymond Street. The railroad has given approval, Raiford says, but plans to build the crossing itself. It will install shoulders that will lower when a train passes through the area, along with a fence that will keep pedestrians from going around it. The schedule for this job has not been announced. It’s possible that other parts of the project could begin independently of the railroad crossing, Blakeman says.
Raiford says the city is currently working with another utility company, Entergy, to relocate and bury the overhead power lines that cross the area. He envisions that part of the project happening this fall.
“I think we should have everything cleaned up and ready to go by the first half of December,” Raiford says.
When finally completed, the walkway under the overpass will give pedestrians and cyclists an alternative, safer way to reach businesses in the busy neighborhood. It’s a trail that alternative transportation fans have already blazed, despite the overpass’s steep incline, lack of lighting, and overgrowth. The plan provides for a more user-friendly parking configuration, attractive lighting and landscaping.
The completed project also has the potential to connect to two other alternative transportation projects in the area, organizers say. The University Lakes overhaul will eventually include improved or new walking trails. And the I-10 widening project calls for new green space and an improved parking plan in the area of the Perkins Road overpass, roughly between Parrain’s Seafood and Chow Yum.
“We remain really positive about what this will bring to the area,” says Misty. “We think it’s great for the community as a whole.”