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EBR debris removal expected to proceed following brief interruption due to weather

2 years 5 months 4 weeks ago Wednesday, September 29 2021 Sep 29, 2021 September 29, 2021 7:10 AM September 29, 2021 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - A brief pause in Baton Rouge's removal of post-Hurricane Ida debris occurred Tuesday due to weather conditions in the capital area.

Kelvin Hill, Assistant Chief Administrative Officer said, "We can't control what mother nature does. We just control how we plan, react, and respond to that. We have a good plan. We keep the drivers safe. We pull the drivers off the streets during bad weather and put them back out there when they can get out there."

Despite yesterday's temporary pause, the city-parish's contracted workers have already picked up 440,000 cubic yards of debris, which is ten percent more than they expected to have accomplished by this date. 

Hill spoke with confidence as he told WBRZ, "We certainly thought this effort would take us about 12 weeks and we're three weeks in, so it's really not the time to be concerned. we'll get to everybody, we'll get the debris collected. So if they'll have patience, we'll get around to them and we'll get it collected.

Workers are picking up debris at a rate of about 27,000 cubic yards on a daily basis.

>Click here to view a map of Hurricane Ida Debris Pickup Status provided by the city-parish

The contractors are still on their first pass and Week Three of an estimated 12-week process. 

It is estimated that there are still about 250-300,000 more cubic yards to be collected. This is a fair amount of work but officials are confident that, with about 90 units on the roads and crews working seven days a week, workers are up to the task. 

Trucks are in every zone that has been identified for collections and they aren't taking it one problem at a time, instead they are tackling multiple issues all at once.

While some parishes don't have the luxury of spreading out resources and instead, must focus all resources on harder-hit areas, East Baton Rouge is able to send crews to various parts of the parish daily. This implies that work can take place at a quicker pace. 

After Tuesday's brief pause in activity due to stormy weather, it is anticipated that crews will hit the ground running Wednesday. 

To help these workers out, residents are asked to separate their construction material from vegetative debris. This makes it easier for workers to pick up. 

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