2/8/18 Daily Report: Baton Rouge Green, transportation officials to discuss fate of trees along I-10

Re-post­ed cour­tesy of Baton Rouge Busi­ness Report Dai­ly Report AMALEXAN­DRIA BUR­RIS | @allyburris

FEB­RU­ARY 8, 2018

Baton Rouge Green plans to meet with state trans­porta­tion offi­cials in com­ing weeks to dis­cuss what will hap­pen to more than a thou­sand trees the group has spent years plant­i­ng along a stretch of Inter­state 10 slat­ed to widened as part of a $600 mil­lion infra­struc­ture improve­ment package.

The trees were plant­ed as part of Liv­ing Road­ways, the organization’s sig­na­ture effort that began in 1991 to improve green infra­struc­ture along major cor­ri­dors and interstates.

BR Green has plant­ed about 5,000 trees as part of the effort, which is sup­port­ed by pri­vate cit­i­zens and busi­ness­es, says Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Sage Foley. At least 1,151 trees are locat­ed at sev­en sites along the stretch of I‑10 set to be widened.

The non­prof­it has sched­uled a meet­ing with Louisiana Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion and Devel­op­ment Sec­re­tary Shawn Wil­son to fig­ure out how to move for­ward, Foley says.

“We haven’t seen the final align­ment so we don’t know what is in the path of the widen­ing,” she says. ​“We have to con­sid­er what spaces around the widen­ing will be need­ed for con­struc­tion set up. We have to iden­ti­fy what can be pre­served and how we will pre­serve it.”

State offi­cials announced the infra­struc­ture pack­et last month, say­ing mon­ey for the projects would come from fed­er­al Grant Antic­i­pa­tion Rev­enue Vehi­cle Bonds. The pack­age includes the $350 mil­lion widen­ing of Inter­state 10 through Baton Rouge, from the base of the Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er Bridge to the I‑10/12 split.

Baton Rouge Green was in the mid­dle of plant­i­ng 59 trees, made pos­si­ble by a gift from Team Auto­mo­tive Group, when state offi­cials announced the pack­age. The trees are being plant­ed at three sites: Inter­state 110 near the Governor’s Man­sion, Aca­di­an Thruway at I‑10, and Air­line High­way at I‑12.

Some of the trees had already been installed at the governor’s man­sion to lit­tle fan­fare. But after the state’s announce­ment, Foley says the orga­ni­za­tion received sev­er­al calls from cit­i­zens ask­ing whether new trees plant­ed at Aca­di­an Thruway at I‑10 were made in protest to the impend­ing construction.

They’re not, she says. A news release issued by Baton Rouge Green calls the plant­i­ng and the tim­ing of the announce­ment coincidental.

“We have been look­ing for­ward to improv­ing these sites for some time,” Foley says in the state­ment. The group has about 18 or the 59 trees left to plant at Air­line near I‑12, she adds. Addi­tion­al land­scap­ing at Col­lege Dri­ve and I‑10 is cur­rent­ly in design and should be installed in the spring.