Officials cut the ribbon today on the first of three phases in the 183 million dollar I-10 widening project.
State Department of Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson said they widened a stretch from LA 347 at the intersection of I-10 all the way to the Atchafalaya Basin to three lanes.
“So westbound we have three lanes from when you get off the basin, and eastbound you have new lanes from 347 back to the basin. A total reconstruction of the entire 2.7, 2.8-mile stretch,” said Wilson.
The project also included two roundabouts and drainage improvements on LA 347.
Work first began on the project in May of 2017, and Wilson said the near 55 million dollar first phase of construction is money well spent, repaving roads first paved in the 50s.
“This is a multimodal corridor that moves over 66,000 cars a day, many of which are trucks traveling from Houston all the way to Miami or other ports in Louisiana,” said Wilson.
The project was completed with 10 million dollars in federal FAST START funds.
Wilson said once the entire project is completed it’ll be a big boon to economies in that corridor, and make for smoother hurricane evacuation out of southeast Louisiana.
“It is going to create a very open an accessible corridor for all individuals who are traveling west from Baton Rouge and any other point east of there to take I-10 and get out of harm’s way,” said Wilson.
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