CENTRAL, La. – The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) held a ceremony today to celebrate the completion of the Joor Road (La. 946) reconstruction project.

Work on the 3.1-mile project included widening Joor Road from two to four lanes with a continuous center turn lane from Jones Bayou to Hooper Road. The project also included the construction of two new girder span bridges at the Comite River and Comite River Relief.

DOTD celebrated the reconstruction of Joor Road with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, hosted by DOTD Legislative Liaison Roy Quezaire.  Other speakers included State Representative Clifton R. Richardson, State Representative Regina Ashford Barrow, State Senator Sharon Weston Broome, Central Mayor Shelton “Mac” Watts and East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden.

“I am excited to be here today to mark the completion of this project,” said Quezaire. “The new lanes will provide much-needed relief to the drivers who use this road each day and will also help to foster economic development for the growing city of Central.”

More than 16,000 drivers use this road each day. This number is expected to increase to approximately 20,000 vehicles per day by 2022. The new lanes and center turn lane will help to ease congestion on this heavily-traveled stretch of Joor Road.

            Work on the $26.8 million project began in February 2007. The contractor for the project was Denton-James LLC.

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www.dotd.la.gov