20-25 million dollars to fix Washington street exit

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BATON ROUGE - An announcement was made on Thursday regarding the future of the Washington Street exit in Old South Baton Rouge.

The governor joined by city, state and congressional representatives announced that a new off-ramp is to be constructed at the Washington exit to help with the traffic problem.

The current exit is often criticized as one of the reasons eastbound I-10 bottlenecks over the river. Delays happen often and at odd times - during rush hour and random weekends. Traffic can back up through West Baton Rouge and reach as far as the Iberville Parish line.

According to Governor John Bel Edwards, the state was awarded a $60 million federal grant for transportation purposes and $20-25 million of that grant will be used to construct the new off-ramp. Edwards said that the construction of the new off-ramp is critical not only for commerce, but for quality of life for drivers.

According to Dr. Shawn Wilson, DOTD secretary, five to seven years is the time frame officials are currently looking at for the project to be completed.

Wednesday, the governor and other leaders discussed work on I-10 west of the Atchafalaya Basin. The interstate will be resurfaced from the I-10 Basin Bridge to the I-10/I-49 interchange. Money for work there is funded by a $60 million highway grant. As WBRZ.com previously reported, federal money used for work in the Lafayette area would free up money to be used in Baton Rouge.

"We will be in a position to redirect resources to other critical infrastructure needs across Louisiana," Governor John Bel Edwards said when the grant funding was announced in June.

The issue at the exit in Baton Rouge is no secret to drivers, state traffic engineers or even federal officials. When the president visited Baton Rouge earlier this year, both the mayor and governor discussed the interstate traffic situation with President Obama.

"The situation has reached such a point that it creates a significant danger to the traveling public," the mayor told the president as they drove through the corridor after his arrival. Then, the mayor said President Obama was supportive of listening and discussing any possible federal solution to the troubles.

Congressman Garret Graves has been an outspoken advocate of federal assistance dealing with the traffic problems.

"This probably should have been anticipated 40 years ago," Graves said in June. "We should have been well on a path to having it addressed by now."

Among the possibilities discussed recently, is a left exit on I-110 southbound. DOTD leaders have said the ramp could help take pressure away from the merge coming off the Mississippi River Bridge. In previous stories, DOTD would not elaborate on where the ramp would or could be built but said it is a serious solution.

"We are confident in what we're doing so much so that we are already beginning the process to design that and that will prevent the merge of traffic from I-110 interfering from traffic off of the bridge coming to Baton Rouge," DOTD Secretary Dr. Shawn Wilson explained.

Wilson is likely to be involved in the news conference Thursday. Watch WBRZ News 2 at NOON Thursday for late-breaking details on the announcement. Monitor the WBRZ Channel 2 Facebook for a live stream of the event Thursday.

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