HUGE new "Water Institute of the Gulf" will be going up in Baton Rouge soon!

It was announced yesterday that a new Water Institute of the Gulf is going to go up in Baton Rouge beginning the first quarter of 2014!  We're told they're eventually going to be hiring from 25 to 40 THOUSAND people!  It's supposed to be huge, obviously -- similar but larger than the one in the Netherlands!  Kyle Graham, deputy director of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority's implementation office said, "The new Water Institute shares similarities with the Netherlands’ Deltares — a collaborative and independent research and consulting group that helps provide water, soil and other delta expertise to the Netherlands and around the world."

 

Here's a description of the location from the Baton Rouge paper: 

 

The campus will cover about 30 acres just south of the Mississippi River Bridge, off of Nicholson Drive. Initial plans call for three buildings to be constructed at a cost of about $45 million. But officials ultimately envision a much larger campus arising over the next 10 years, as the initial "anchor tenant" facilities attract other research organizations and businesses that want to locate nearby.

Those 30 acres will be long and narrow -- they're going to run from the I-10 Mississippi River bridge all the way south to the LSU campus - several miles.

Check out the New Orleans Times Picayune article about it. 

 

Can't wait to see what the buildings are actually going to look like. 

This is just right next to the bridge.  That's the site of the old city dock. 

Here are a lot more drawings published in the New Orleans paper:

Since I drive by that entire area to get to work, I guess I'll get to watch construction on a daily basis.   I've been wondering for quite a while why the houses along there were all sold and then demolished over the last year or two.  This explains it!  On the plus side, although they've demolished all the buildings, they HAVE left those dozens of huge old Live Oaks in place.  That's a great thing.

 

But I guess it's good I'll be retired by the time the place actually opens up.  I imagine driving through that area won't be much fun once those THOUSANDS of employees are driving in each morning!!! Gees!