Perkins Road Construction Update
East Baton Rouge Parish

June 10, 2009

You can now follow the Perkins Road Widening Project on Facebook. Go to this link and look for the Perkins Road Project under “Favorites.”

Baton Rouge traffic is now on Twitter! To get up-to-date traffic reports check out this link.

For statewide traffic and road conditions visit our 511 page. You can also get traffic updates by dialing 511 from your phone.

Bluebonnet Boulevard to Essen Lane

Traffic has been moved on to the newly constructed outside lanes of Perkins Road between Essen Lane and Bluebonnet Boulevard. Lime and stone for the foundation operations in the new middle lanes are under way.  One crew is working on the road foundation and a second crew is making preparations to begin pouring concrete. Motorists are allowed to make left turns on or off of Perkins Road at specific locations only. 

A third crew is working on the Dawson Creek Bridge. All deck spans on the north and south side of the bridge are complete.  A few remaining items are being completed on the outside portions of the bridge.  Construction of the center lanes of the bridge is underway. 

This traffic configuration is expected to last until mid- June 2009 for the section between Bluebonnet and the Dawson Creek Bridge, and August 2009 for the section between Dawson Creek and Essen Lane.

Siegen Lane to Bluebonnet Boulevard

Temporary striping will be replaced with permanent striping near the end of the project in December and January. At this time the final seeding, dress-up and final clean-up will take place along the entire project area.

Perkins and Bluebonnet intersection

Starting June 18, the intersection of Perkins and Bluebonnet will be under construction.  Traffic will be restricted to one through-lane and a left-turn lane in each direction. Right turns will be restricted from time to time. This traffic configuration will last for approximately a six month period. Below is a description of each of the sections of work, estimated start times and duration periods. You can find a graphic that will help explain these sections on the Perkins Road Web Page under the section “Bluebonnet and Perkins Intersection Traffic Data”

Section 1
Start date: June 15
Duration: approximately 6 weeks
During this time, we will begin reconstructing the south side of the intersection and approaches on Perkins. Drivers headed eastbound on Perkins will not be allowed to turn right onto Bluebonnet. Drivers headed northbound on Bluebonnet will not be allowed to turn right onto Perkins.

Section 1a
Once section one is complete crews will take the following weekend to reconstruct a portion of the northbound Bluebonnet approach to Perkins. For one weekend, this approach will be reduced to 1 combined left-turn and through lane. This will allow crews to reconstruct the middle lane, which will be used as a left-turn lane during Section 2. Drivers headed eastbound on Perkins will not be allowed to turn right onto Bluebonnet. Drivers headed northbound on Bluebonnet will not be allowed to turn right onto Perkins.

Section 2
Start date: early August
Duration: approximately 3 weeks
During Section 2, crews will rebuild the middle section of the south side of the intersection. Drivers headed eastbound on Perkins will not be allowed to turn right on Bluebonnet. Drivers headed northbound on Bluebonnet will not be allowed to turn right onto Perkins.

Section 3
Start date: early September
Duration: approximately 6 weeks
During Section 3, crews will begin construction on the north side of the intersection. There are no turning restrictions at this time.

Section 4
Start date: mid-October
Duration: approximately 3 weeks
During Section 4, the last section of the north side of the intersection and approaches will be reconstructed. Drivers headed westbound on Perkins will not be allowed to turn right onto Bluebonnet. Drivers headed southbound on Bluebonnet will not be allowed to turn right onto Perkins.

All above mentioned work schedules are subject to change due to adverse weather. 

For additional questions or comments contact DOTD’s Customer Service Center at 1-877-4LA-DOTD (1-877-452-3683) or e-mail at customerservice@dotd.la.gov. The center is open 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

If you are a member of a homeowners association and would like a DOTD speaker to attend one of your meetings to share information about this project, please let me know. Also, feel free to forward this e-mail onto to anyone you think would like to receive this information.

Additionally, at your convenience, please let us know how we are doing by filling out our customer service survey below. Again, we thank you for your feedback and patience during this construction.

State Project No. .................................................................................. 258-01-0030
Parish............................................................................................... East Baton Rouge
Contractor.......................................................................... James Construction Group     
Contract Amount........................................................................................ $27 million
Project Start Date............................................................................... January 9, 2007     
Anticipated Completion Date................................................................... January 2010

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Customer Service Survey