BATON ROUGE, LA – LSU officials confirmed Tuesday that the ongoing lakes refurbishment project has once again increased in cost and slipped further behind schedule, citing what administrators called “unanticipated flamingo activity.”
According to the university, the recent return of pink flamingos ahead of Spanish Town season introduced environmental and logistical complications that were not included in earlier estimates, despite multiple revisions, extensions, and budget increases already attached to the project.
Construction crews reportedly paused work after flamingos were spotted standing calmly in newly disturbed mud, an area officials now believe may qualify as a “temporary but environmentally sensitive habitat.”
“We fully support wildlife returning to campus,” said a university spokesperson, “but we did not anticipate the flamingos arriving before the lakes were finished, or standing directly in places we just paid to rework.”
The latest adjustment adds several months to the timeline and several million dollars to the budget to fund a newly created Flamingo Assessment Phase (FAP), which includes additional studies, buffer zones, and consultants tasked with determining whether the birds are in the right spot or just confused.
University officials stressed that delays are a normal part of major infrastructure projects at Louisiana State University, noting that, at this point, the flamingos remain the only part of the project operating on schedule.
