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Baton Rouge Inner Loop


richyb83

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a.k.a. "B.U.M.P."....Pipe Dream??  It's back in the news again....big-time engineering firm interested in this. This has already been discussed last year &/or two year ago? here on UP in the BR Growth & Development thread....

 

This idea has PLENTY of obstacles....like building a toll road along an existing highway? Businesses etc...and a threat to the BIG Outer Loop that is very doubtful to ever happen + HOW is it going to parallel Pecue Lane north of I-10?

 

The article already has 84 comments below...

 

Firm interested in building Baton Rouge ‘inner loop’ toll road to ease traffic

 

An international engineering firm has submitted a preliminary proposal to the state to build an “inner loop” toll road around Baton Rouge, officials said Thursday morning.

 

The plan, which faces a lengthy review process and daunting hurdles, is called the Baton Rouge Urban Renewal and Mobility Plan, or BUMP.

 

It is supposed to connect interstates 10, 12, 110, U.S. 61 and U.S. 190 in a high-speed route around Baton Rouge that would ease daily complaints about traffic gridlock.

 

The proposal, which was not solicited, was submitted by AECOM, which is the engineering firm based in Los Angeles and has offices in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. It represents a possible public private partnership, which envisions a firm building the roadway, then relying on toll revenue to repay the costs plus a profit

 

The loop would extend 23 miles, from Interstate 10 near Pecue Lane in East Baton Rouge Parish, along a revamped Airline Highway and across the U.S. 190 Bridge to a point on I-10 four miles west of the LA 415 interchange in West Baton Rouge Parish.

 

The Louisiana Transportation Authority, after a brief hearing, voted to allow the state Department of Transportation and Development to hire an expert to review the plan.

 

The authority oversees possible mega projects for inclusion in state transportation plans.

State Rep. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, and other members of the Capital Region Legislative Delegation touted the plan during the 2014 legislative session as a potential way to ease traffic woes.

They also got money in the state’s capital improvements budget for early planning.

 

Cost estimates range from $700 million to $1 billion.

 

In addition, any such undertaking would face a variety of political and other hurdles.

 

Reluctance to pay tolls and possible resistance to converting Airline Highway into a high-speed, four-lane corridor are among the hurdles.

 

City-parish government leaders who have touted a full-scale loop for years may also view an “inner loop” as a threat to any chances for their own plans ever becoming reality, however remote that may be.

 

DOTD Secretary Sherri LeBas, a member of the authority, said future studies would shed light on a wide range of issues, including whether big-truck drivers would be willing to pay tolls to get around Baton Rouge.

 

“That is the first step, we need more data,” LeBas said

 

http://theadvocate.com/news/11337928-123/firm-interested-in-building-baton

 

 

 

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You can restrict trucks and require they use the bypass unless they have a local delivery. Many cities do this. If you remove a significant part of the truck traffic it would greatly improve traffic along I10. You can also place signs giving you travel times with both the loop and I10 so motorists can make a decision. If it's 40 minutes to take the loop around but 75 minutes to take 10 or an accident is advertised I'm betting most people take the loop.

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You can restrict trucks and require they use the bypass unless they have a local delivery. Many cities do this. If you remove a significant part of the truck traffic it would greatly improve traffic along I10. You can also place signs giving you travel times with both the loop and I10 so motorists can make a decision. If it's 40 minutes to take the loop around but 75 minutes to take 10 or an accident is advertised I'm betting most people take the loop.

But it's not a loop, or a bypass. It goes straight through Baton Rouge!

 

It should proposed for Airline Hwy from I-10 south of Gonzales.

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I rather see that money invested in transit maybe a rail system that go through EBR. Then it can be expanded to some of the other Baton Rouge area parish. Light Rail, Subway System, Bus Rapid Transit which run like a rail system just saying if they want to spend 700 million to 1 billion. Regional Transit should be form I think that would help traffic less cars less traffic.

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Thanks for all of y'alls replies! :shades:

 

I would like to see some animated clips on EXACTLY how this would work/adding a 4 lane toll to the already 4 & 6 lane Airline AND...All of the elevated overpasses with on/off ramps at all the key intersections...Airline at Siegen/Sherwood/Jefferson...over Coursey/Bluebonnet....I-12...Old Hammond Hwy/ Goodwood/Florida Blvd/Cortana Mall....Greenwell Springs Rd etc into NBR...

 

As said before if I had it my way the Southern By-pass would be implemented 1st...from Ascension/Tanger Mall...paralleling Hwy 30/Nicholson..heading toward L'auberge Casino  and "new" Miss River Bridge across to Brusly/Addis tying into to Hwy 415(that ends at Intracoastal Waterway) with a new Bridge...all tied into the Westbank Expressway

 

Best way for Hurricane evacuations for Greater NOLA & south La....and not clogging up the chaotic funnel between 10/12 thru the heart of BR and cripples the city into massive gridlock.....Then build from there with whatever

 

I like the light-rail for BR...but not sure for Airline Hwy?

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Thanks for all of y'alls replies! :shades:

 

I would like to see some animated clips on EXACTLY how this would work/adding a 4 lane toll to the already 4 & 6 lane Airline AND...All of the elevated overpasses with on/off ramps at all the key intersections...Airline at Siegen/Sherwood/Jefferson...over Coursey/Bluebonnet....I-12...Old Hammond Hwy/ Goodwood/Florida Blvd/Cortana Mall....Greenwell Springs Rd etc into NBR...

 

As said before if I had it my way the Southern By-pass would be implemented 1st...from Ascension/Tanger Mall...paralleling Hwy 30/Nicholson..heading toward L'auberge Casino  and "new" Miss River Bridge across to Brusly/Addis tying into to Hwy 415(that ends at Intracoastal Waterway) with a new Bridge...all tied into the Westbank Expressway

 

Best way for Hurricane evacuations for Greater NOLA & south La....and not clogging up the chaotic funnel between 10/12 thru the heart of BR and cripples the city into massive gridlock.....Then build from there with whatever

 

I like the light-rail for BR...but not sure for Airline Hwy?

It would literally plow through the city and destroy many communities and probably just make traffic worse. I mean, you're talking tons of homes, schools, businesses, etc. being eminent domained. 

 

It was a mistake not to build the outer-loop and it something that needs to be done now. Not this. 

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I'm a bit late on some of these replies to here we go.

 

Coming from the northshore you have to come all the way to Airline to get on a loop. Seems to defeat the purpose of a loop.

 

The biggest choke point is I10 at I110. If done right people will want to avoid that cluster of an intersection. I personally think a tight bypass around the city will detour enough people that I10 may not have to be widened. Most of the traffic just passes by. If you can leave I10 to mainly local traffic the road is probably near the needed capacity.

 

NO! NO! NO! 


I am not about to let this crap happen to the inner-city because stuck up jerks outside of the city do not want an outer-loop. It's time for 21st century solutions, not BS from the 60's. 

 

Now...a system of Parisian like boulevards I'm all for. 

 

Airline Hwy isn't exactly inner city. It's about as close as BR gets to a suburb aside from "St. George". Just because i live in Ascension doesn't make me stuck up. I'm for the outer loop if done sensibly. I agree that an outer loop is necessary and if the powers at be had any sense in them they would have acquired the land years ago to make it a reality. I don't think what Mayor Holden has proposed is the right answer either. I think it's too large for the population base. I think a "southern bypass" as others have stated is a worth while project if as they usually state for nothing else, hurricane evacuations. I don't think it's viable as the only measure to reduce traffic since about 60% of the traffic take I12 and not I10 at the split. I think Ascension and Livingston should cooperate and build a freeway between I10 and I12. It would cut down on traffic that enters BR just to switch the freeway and the exists BR again.

 

The thing about mass transit is that it doesn't do anything for the truck traffic, and the truck traffic is at the heart of most of our interstate highway struggles.

 

Its something that needs to happen in addition to highway improvements. 

 

Agreed. Pass through traffic is the biggest hurdle for our local interstate segment. 

 

Coming from the northshore you have to come all the way to Airline to get on a loop. Seems to defeat the purpose of a loop.

 

During off peak times I doubt it would be used much however during peak times or times of high traffic volume I think it will lead to a reduction in travel time. It's not that far out of the way, especially if allowed to do 60 or 70mph.

 

It would literally plow through the city and destroy many communities and probably just make traffic worse. I mean, you're talking tons of homes, schools, businesses, etc. being eminent domained. 

 

It was a mistake not to build the outer-loop and it something that needs to be done now. Not this. 

 

I'm not sure of the right of way between say Cortana and I110 but the right away from Florida and points southwards is pretty large. I don't think it would take much to make this a reality.

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Looking at a city map it looks like another four lanes would go through the neighborhoods by Cortana and the deserted hospital along Airline. Also looking at a map the Florida-Airline intersection is the "geographical" center of the city. 

 

Personally Baton Rouge does not need an inner loop (which would get clogged frequently IMO), but it needs large boulevards that connect the city together. To give an example of what I mean here is a map I made a few months ago:

 

2mg9hfs.png

 

So ignore the stuff in WBR and look at the EBR roads. Yellow means it is a major road with a size of four to eight lanes and orange is interstate. 

 

The stuff in West Baton Rouge if you are curious would be an expanded port through the creation of a harbor and the subsequent redevelopment of the towns in that area to follow a more NYC model. 

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No doubt the outer loop should have been started & completed 15-20 years ago when there was not as much development in Livingston & Ascension...we had plenty of rant here on UP on the I-415/Outer Loop thread. It may be too late now...

 

WOW!!  That's some serious street grid Mr Bernham!  Hard to ignore the harbor in WBR :lol: That's pretty creative...I like the greenspace along the fringes of the big reservoir ...like the LSU lake on steroids!! Looks like WBR would have well over 100,000 people according to that dense map!

 

Would that be a HUGE roundabout at Airline/Florida/Cortana??

 

The poor Bluff Swamp/Spanish Lake preserve(east of St. Gabriel) is full of street grid as well

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No doubt the outer loop should have been started & completed 15-20 years ago when there was not as much development in Livingston & Ascension...we had plenty of rant here on UP on the I-415/Outer Loop thread. It may be too late now...

 

WOW!!  That's some serious street grid Mr Bernham!  Hard to ignore the harbor in WBR :lol: That's pretty creative...I like the greenspace along the fringes of the big reservoir ...like the LSU lake on steroids!! Looks like WBR would have well over 100,000 people according to that dense map!

 

Would that be a HUGE roundabout at Airline/Florida/Cortana??

 

The poor Bluff Swamp/Spanish Lake preserve(east of St. Gabriel) is full of street grid as well

Idealistically this map would be able to handle a population of 4 million people through a mixture of dense development and traditional neighborhoods. The WBR Harbor would be the exact size of Sydney Harbor and would contain the cities port (would be second largest in the nation coming next to Houston, but much busier). Most of the homes here would be a suburb-TND hybrid. The Port Allen area would be the most dense area. It's street grid would be very similar to New Yorks and the current port that exists here would be moved and be redeveloped. So I guess the best way to put WBR is that the North is very dense and the South is progressively more and more suburban. 

 

EBR would in many ways become an American Paris. This does not mean it will be a carbon copy of the city, but that Parisian methods of road systems and architecture would be applied. 

 

Florida would become the Champs Elysee of the city and in the center of the roads massive roundabout would be the 'Arch of Unity'. It has a literal and symbolic meaning, the literal is that the arch is in the cities unifying center and can be accessed from any point in the city it also symbolizes the Southern and Northern unity. It would be larger than the Arch de Triumph in Paris by a few meters. Mid City would be 'densified' through grid reconstruction and Florida would have many grand public buildings. An example of this grid restructuring can be seen in one of the maps I posted awhile ago. 

 

Essentially this would be a megalomaniac of a plan and while there are more aspects and lots of pictures to show you guys I figure a proper blog post should be created instead. 

 

Also I would like to mention that under this plan most existing developments would stay. The only areas that would change beyond the new major roads would be the Health District, but even then it would only a few new roads.

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I must be the only one who doesn't see how this will help.

You clearly don't use the bridge as often as I have.

I see this as a way to provide an alternate route around the 10/110 split while opening up areas in northern East Baton Rouge to investment, distributing and controlling outlying development in a way that keeps downtown, mid city, and the airport closer to the center of population in the metro instead of a book end.

I am also confident that, if done correctly, a limited access freeway with adequate feeder roads would contribute enough to traffic counts in northern Baton Rouge to improve the retail amenities there and possibly redevelop the Cortana mall and EKL area.

Franlkly, the only other plan that makes sense to me is the northern leg of the initial proposed loop and the west side expressway (which I think is critical for the entire southern part of the state).

I don't like routes that are too far from the city center, which should be downtown despite leadership's best effort to push people farther down I-10 and I-12.

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