EBR Dept. of Transportation narrows down 15 roadways to move traffic during I-10 widening project

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - East Baton Rouge leaders are looking at some actions they can take to mitigate before the I-10 widening lane restrictions begin.

Metro Council members will hear a report from the East Baton Rouge Department of Transportation director on what they plan to do to make things easier for drivers.

They plan to expand I-10 to four lanes from the new bridge to Acadian, in both directions. However, getting that done will mean times of lane restrictions and some drivers are already concerned about how they might get around the mess.

“Take surface streets, have a plan b, always have a plan b,” said Mickey Harris who lives in Baton Rouge. Marilyn Williams will start commuting to downtown Baton Rouge because she just started a nonprofit.

“We have some volunteers that are coming, both areas of I-10, so yes it’s going to cause a lot of issues with the backup trying to get down here,” explained Williams.

“Unfortunately, many people use that interstate as a local street. The numbers reflect that,” said EBR Director of Transportation, Fred Raiford.

Raid explains with this I-10 construction, more drivers will be looking for shortcuts to get to where they need to be.

“Most of our roadways today are over capacity, right now. Okay, we are going to now be adding maybe another 60,000 cars to them, spread out over a period of time in little different locations,” added Raiford.

Raiford says they’ve narrowed it down to 15 roadways that will absorb traffic being taken off the interstate during construction. He said their goal is to keep traffic moving along those 15 routes by synchronizing traffic lights.

“Be sure we have detection of vehicles, the cameras that we would also need to watch what is taking place at the intersection, to help facilitate moving cars through an intersection. This gives us the reliability to be able to make real-time changes that we need at intersections to be helpful for the motor and public to move through the areas that they want to go to in a reasonable time,” explained Raiford.

Raiford said 90% of the traffic lights have been updated to work with traffic flows. The Mayor’s Office is working with state agencies about what time people should come and leave for work in downtown Baton Rouge, or if they should work from home.

City leaders also developed an app that will hopefully get more people to carpool, called, “CommuterKrewe.”

DOTD officials say construction is scheduled to begin in 2023 and is estimated to be completed in 2028, weather permitting.

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