Perkins Road Construction Update
East Baton Rouge Parish

August 19, 2009

You can now follow the Perkins Road Widening Project on Facebook. Once you open a Facebook account, you can access project information by entering “DOTD” or Perkins Road” into the search field.

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 and Perkins Road intersection

Crews are working on the road foundation for the south side of the Bluebonnet and Perkins intersection.  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 work began June 18, and the traffic configuration will last for approximately six months. Below is a description of each section 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 COMPLETE
Start date: June 18
Duration: approximately six 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 COMPLETE
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 one 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 ON SCHEDULE
Start date: early August
Duration: approximately three weeks
During Section Two, 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 six weeks
During Section Three, 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 Four, 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.

Bluebonnet Boulevard to Essen Lane

Crews are completing paving operations between Dawson’s Creek and Essen Lane as well as working on the Dawson Creek Bridge. All deck spans on the north and south side of the bridge are complete.  A few remaining punch list items are being worked on for the outside portions of the bridge.  Construction of the center section of the bridge is underway.  Pile driving and substructure operations are underway.

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.

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 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 on 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