DOTD to host open house meetings on I-10 project in EBR and Ascension
Monday, April 16, 2018 at 12:58:44 PM
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development will host two informal open house meetings in April to inform citizens about the ongoing Interstate 10 construction between Highland Road in Baton Rouge and La. 73 in Ascension Parish.
The open houses will be:
• Monday, April 23, 6:30 p.m., St. George Catholic Church, 7808 St. George Drive in Baton Rouge.
• Thursday, April 26, 6:30 p.m., Dutchtown High School, 13165 La. 73 in Geismar.
The public is encouraged to attend either meeting, where they can receive information about the scope, timeline and traffic impacts of the project. Representatives from DOTD and the project team will be on hand at both meetings to answer questions.
The DOTD I-10 widening project will widen I-10 from four lanes to six lanes between Highland Road and La. 73. This 6.5-mile segment of the interstate carries more than 95,000 vehicles a day, according to a 2016 traffic count. That traffic volume represents nearly a 20 percent increase from the 2013 traffic count.
Construction on the project began in February 2018 and should take about two years to complete.
This east-west corridor is frequently congested during morning and afternoon commutes by people traveling between Baton Rouge and the rapidly growing suburban areas of northern Ascension Parish. This portion of I-10 also is part of the main route between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and is one of the busiest surface freight routes in Louisiana.
Three bridges will be affected by the project. DOTD will rebuild the I-10 overpass above Highland Road, removing the existing two bridges and replacing them with one large overpass with three 12-foot travel lanes in each direction. The new bridge also will feature 10-foot outside shoulders and 19-foot inside shoulders, separated by a two-foot barrier.
The I-10 eastbound and westbound bridges over Bayou Manchac at the East Baton Rouge/Ascension parish line will be widened to the inside, creating three 12-foot travel lanes in each direction, 10-foot outside shoulders and 14-foot inside shoulders.
The bridge that carries La. 928, known locally as Bluff Road, over I-10 will be closed over the summer to replace a main girder and raise the bridge approximately nine inches to comply with federal updated interstate standards. The bridge is scheduled to be closed from late May 2018 to early August 2018 to coincide with the summer school vacation. Detour routes will be posted prominently during the closure.
The project is being constructed under an innovative process called design-build, which can cut the cost of large transportation projects and allow swifter completion. Under design-build, a construction contractor and engineer-designer join forces to work concurrently on design and construction plans. This is different than the traditional design-bid-build process, in which an engineering team designs the contract, the owner bids out the construction work and a contractor builds the project.
For more information on this project, go to: https://bit.ly/2EEFGN9