PRESS RELEASE DETAIL

For Immediate Release

Release Date: 07/09/2014

Green Light Plan Completes Construction on Staring Lane

Baton Rouge, La. — Mayor-President Melvin L. “Kip” Holden will host a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Green Light Plan’s Staring Lane project on July 9 at 10 a.m. at the General Assembly Church of Baton Rouge at 420 Staring Lane. The ceremony will mark the completion of one of the largest road construction projects included within the Green Light Plan.

"Staring Lane is one of the busiest roadways in East Baton Rouge Parish and has been in desperate need of capacity improvements for many years,” Mayor Holden said. “This is a project that was a top priority to complete and ties into a number of other improvements in and around the area, like the Staring Lane Extension – another project completed through the Green Light Plan. The end result is a wider, safer and greatly improved Staring Lane that will serve the citizens of Baton Rouge for many years to come.”

J.B. James Construction, LLC completed the $27.8 million construction project by widening Staring Lane from a two-lane, undivided roadway to a four-lane roadway stretching from Perkins Road to Highland Road. Project improvements include the addition of six-foot sidewalks on each side of the roadway to support enhanced pedestrian access, a raised grass median and signalization upgrades and access improvements at key intersections along Staring Lane.

In addition, as part of a dedicated effort to improve older and potentially unsafe bridges across East Baton Rouge Parish, the bridge over Dawson Creek was replaced with two new bridges to help accommodate southbound and northbound traffic along Staring Lane. The project also featured a number of critical sewer system upgrades, including approximately two miles of sewer force main pipe installations along the Staring Lane area, coordinated in conjunction with the Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) program. Many Green Light Plan projects, like the Staring Lane project, incorporate SSO program work elements into the road construction process to eliminate duplication of effort, create efficiencies, minimize impacts to the public and generate millions of dollars in savings that can be re-invested into other infrastructure improvement projects.

When combined with the Staring Lane Extension project – a separate Green Light Plan project completed in June 2011 that featured the construction of a new connecting roadway from Highland Road to Burbank Drive – the improved Staring Lane serves as a critical link to a dedicated north-south route that stretches from Interstate 10 and Essen Lane to Burbank Drive.