Business Report
The name of a new coalition formed by the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance, Baton Rouge Area Chamber and Center for Planning Excellence to bring attention to the Capital Region’s growing transportation infrastructure challenges seems to say it all.
CRISIS—or the Capital Region Industry for Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions—will work to coordinate efforts to achieve short-term to long-term goals to help alleviate traffic congestion and ensure future transportation infrastructure sustainability, say the coalition’s founding agencies.
“The Capital Region has reached a historic 400,000 jobs milestone, with tens of thousands of more jobs forecast in the pipeline. At the same time, Capital Region businesses report transportation infrastructure as by far their greatest concern, with traffic a top potential barrier for growth,” BRAC member Ann Forte Trappey, who is also president and CEO of Forte and Tablada, says in a news release. “We’re reaching a tipping point, and the time for action is now. Our transportation system should be a way to provide people easy access to their jobs, not a barrier that puts greater job opportunities at risk.”
GBRIA, BRAC and CPEX have enlisted an impressive lineup of businesses from the five-parish area to participate in the coalition, including BASF, Baton Rouge General Hospital, Cajun Industries, Dow Chemical Co., ExxonMobil Baton Rouge, Lamar Advertising, L’Auberge, Lard Oil Company, Lyons Specialty Co., Methanex, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, St. Elizabeth Hospital and Turner Industries, among others.
“The coalition will identify regional priorities by engaging local leaders, community stakeholders, and industry partners,” says BRAC in a press release.