³Õ´¡°ä±á·¡¸é±õ·¡Ìý— The St. James Parish Council hired a Gonzales engineering firm Wednesday to evaluate the possible alignments of a future evacuation route for west bank residents who live amid a growing industrial base.
For several years, community activists have lobbied for some kind of escape route as petroleum tank farms and other industrial projects have sprouted in western St. James along the Mississippi River. The issue took on more intensity last year as the Bayou Bridge crude oil pipeline was pushing through the parish's land use review.
CONVENT — St. James Parish President Timmy Roussel pledged Wednesday to "review every possibility" to create an alternative evacuation route f…
Amid the controversy over that pipeline, state officials, including Chuck Carr Brown, the state's environmental chief, and Parish President Timmy Roussel promised to evaluate the options. Â
On Wednesday, Glenn Shaheen, president of GSA Consulting Engineers, the winning firm, told the Parish Council that his company will look at possible routes between La. 3219 and the Sunshine Bridge, an area the firm's $26,750 contract describes as the Welcome area.
Shaheen said that in 30 to 45 days, his company will come up with a preferred route and a cost estimate after evaluating land acquisition, environmental, pipeline and other questions. Â
"And at the end of that process, there will be a recommended route, or recommended alignment, that will come back to this council for approval," Shaheen said.
He said the proposed route would likely be a two-lane, public road with shoulders and ditches.
Shaheen added that his firm has been directed to finish the feasibility study on a short time frame so the route can be ready for a state capital outlay request in November.
Councilman Clyde Cooper, who represents the Welcome area, said he is still cautious about whether the study will lead to a new road but he said the parish has gotten indications of support from state officials and some industries. He said he saw the study as a step toward what his constituents have been seeking.
"It's a big relief that they have more than one way to get out of harm's way if something were to potentially happen," he said.Â
Many whom the route would help live on long, mostly dead-end neighborhood roads that extend off River Road between major facilities and large agricultural tracts.
Activists have argued for extending one of these roads or building another, new road to link River Road with La. 3127. That highway runs parallel to the river but is in the west bank's interior, away from industrial facilities on the Mississippi. Â
The growth pressure is continuing in western St. James as the Formosa Chemical is seeking parish approval for a new $9.4 billion chemical plant about a mile north of the Welcome community. Earlier this month, the council approved a $200 million expansion of the Ergon St. James tank farm and oil terminal with conditions to keep the 20 new tanks away from homes in the Freetown community.
Shaheen did not discuss Wednesday what routes his firm would consider. Roussel said in interviews that Freetown Street, Burton Lane and Kingview and Park streets would be the main roads considered, though others could be added. Â
Jacob Nelson, 30, who lives on Freetown Street within sight of the Ergon St. James tank farm, had mixed feelings about an evacuation route on his now dead-end street.Â
Nelson said a shorter route is a good idea. It takes him 15 to 20 minutes to get around to La. 3127 now.
At the same time, Nelson said, standing Wednesday in the shade of a giant old pecan tree on a still summer afternoon, that he enjoys his quiet neighborhood as it is.
He said if the parish ends up choosing Freetown, officials will need to put a lot of signs warning drivers about children.
"They got a lot of kids … playing out here," Nelson said. Â
In front of his trailer, a young boy in Nelson's extended family played on a basketball goal facing out into the street as the occasional car or truck passed on the narrow road.
A few miles down the river, on Burton Lane, where the tank farms are closer and residents have clamored for a way out, Kennith Scioneaux said he wanted the evacuation route on his street.Â
At one time, he said, residents could pass out the back of Burton and reach La. 3127, but the road was closed off a few years ago. He said now people have to drive as much as two miles around to get out.Â
"That don't make no sense," he said.
