I-10 widening through Baton Rouge could start next year

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I-10 widening through Baton Rouge could start next year

August 20, 2018
Baton Rouge Business Report
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Construction could start as early as the fall of 2019 on the $350 million widening of Interstate 10 through Baton Rouge, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Shawn Wilson said Monday.

The project, once complete, will widen I-10 from the base of the Mississippi River bridge to the I-10/I-12 split. Completed in phases, Wilson estimates road work will take between five to seven years to finish.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been this close to what is the holy grail of traffic solutions in Louisiana,” Wilson said at Monday’s Press Club meeting at the Belle of Baton Rouge atrium.

He anticipates 95% of the funding will come from the federal Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle Bonds proceeds and the remaining 5% from local funding sources.

Known as GARVEE bonds, it allows the state to repay the debt with federal highway funds the state receives each year. The debt, totaling between $60 million and $70 million for the state, will be paid over 12 years. In other words, the state can use federal money it expects to get in the future to bond construction work in the present.

Public meetings start next week in Addis and Baton Rouge to gather public input on the project.

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Mississippi River bridge to Dalrymple
This section of the corridor is one of the biggest traffic chokepoints in the Baton Rouge area.

Motorists leaving the bridge and heading into Baton Rouge now have two eastbound lanes — briefly. The outside lane requires drivers leaving the bridge to quickly exit at little-used Washington Street.

That often sparks panic by motorists, who then force their way one lane over, and out of the Washington Street-bound lane, to continue eastbound on I-10.

Under the plan, what is now the Washington Street exit lane off the bridge would become the new eastbound lane that carries travelers through town to the I-10/12 split.

Motorists still would have the option of exiting farther east at a new, combined Washington Street/Dalrymple exit.

"That way, you will have two lanes coming from I-110 south and two lanes coming off the bridge," said Eric Kalivoda, deputy secretary for DOTD.

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Perkins Road overpass
Business owners in the area have long criticized I-10 widening plans and predicted that adding new lanes would destroy restaurants, bars and shops.

Kalivoda said the state may not need any right of way for that section of the widening.

The work can be done, he said, without putting more restaurants and bars literally under a revamped I-10.

The key? Closing the on- and off-ramps at Perkins, which would create space on both sides of the existing interstate.

"In removing those ramps, and of course we own the right of way that the ramps currently occupy, that gives us the room to widen and add additional through lanes," he said.

Most of the widening will be done on the outside of the roadway.

Lanes have to be 12 feet wide.

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Acadian Thruway
At Acadian Thruway, the westbound on-ramp and the eastbound off-ramp would be lengthened.

Both would be done after the Perkins Road on- and off-ramps are removed.

The westbound on-ramp to I-10, which is near TJ Ribs, is especially troublesome, and some motorists avoid it.

"It is a very short on-ramp," Kalivoda said. "But we can't really lengthen it because the Perkins Road on-ramp is in the way."

The eastbound auxiliary lane between Acadian and College is expected to remain.

Some soundwalls in the area will be relocated on mostly state-owned property to allow for the widening.

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College Drive
At College Drive, the widening means there will be four eastbound lanes crossing the College Drive overpass, and the College Drive on-ramp will make five.

Significantly, a new elevated express ramp will be added on I-10 for westbound drivers headed to College Drive.

The current pattern is this: Westbound motorists on I-10, after they pass Essen Lane, see that the interstate narrows from three lanes to two near the ramp for eastbound I-12.

That often results in motorists trying to wedge into traffic to avoid heading east on I-12.

The changes would eliminate the triple lane change that westbound I-10 drivers have to make to exit at College Drive.

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Traffic through the entire corridor was built in the 1960s for around 80,000 vehicles per day.

Instead, more than twice that number use it daily.

According to projections, more than 200,000 vehicles will be using it daily by 2032, boosting travel times by up to 80 percent.

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