BATON ROUGE- One year after the start of the University Lakes Restoration Project, residents are not happy with the progress. 

Phase one began in June of 2023, which entails dredging City Park Lake, building “living shorelines” around City Park Lake and Lake Erie and improving May Street between City Park and University Lakes. One resident says the work has also resulted in overgrowth of vegetation in the lake behind his home on Stanford Ave. 

"Basically we've lost more and more water and we've had more and more vegetation growing. Can't get our sailboat or our paddleboats out," Dr. Hunt Odom, a resident, said.

The overgrowth resembles a small jungle rather than a body of water. Compounding the unsightly view is a project to build a new City Park Lake bridge as part of the state’s I-10 Widening Project. 

According to DOTD, a trestle bridge has finished being constructed and will serve as a staging area for equipment. The project is currently still in Stage one. 

Phase one of the Lakes project will finish in July. You can click here for an update on the overall progress of the project so far.