I work at the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority in Downtown Baton Rouge. I actually started my internship the Monday after finals started and plan to work through the summer as well. Fortunately they gave me 3 weeks off for Christmas break, so I start back up the 10th the day after the national championship game. From day one I was given a project to start getting acquainted with in the morning and by the end of the day I was expected to have a zoned area to start designing soon. Currently I am working on what is called the Choctaw Corridor, which is part of the new Baton Rouge redesign. Part of the Baton Rouge redesign, the city wants to create an urban trail throughout the city. Choctaw is the first phase of the project. Currently there is a “catalyst project” being implement on the Choctaw Corridor. The catalyst project is the redesign of shopping area to include redesign of façades, parking lots, and housing.
The urban trail on Choctaw Corridor was supposed to be around 9,000 linear feet, but due to budgets, we are cutting the first phase to around 2,000-3,000 linear feet. Currently we are looking into the area from Ward Creek to North Acadian Thruway West. This would be 2300 linear feet total, which would connect to the new development of the potential catalyst project and Green Light Plan that is being implemented South of Choctaw Drive.
While on a site visit, my co-worker and I came across a school which with the cooperation of the school, we could possibly apply for a grant called Safe Routes to School which would allow us to design a safe route for children to take within 2 miles of the school. Depending on the final budget of those two grants, if the money allows, we will connect the Safe Routes to School area as well as the Choctaw Corridor which would also allow us to connect the North Acadian Thruway Park. Otherwise we would potentially apply for a second trail grant.
Like I said I’ll be back to work after the game.
Geaux Tigers!!!
Megan Roussel
PS. I keep getting an internal error while trying to post my picture. I will edit my post if I figure out how to post it.
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