Project Info
The project has now progressed from study to implementation, with final design documents being completed during 2022. As a result of efficiencies identified through the Construction Manager At Risk process, DOTD has expanded Segment 1 of the I-10 Improvements Project in Baton Rouge to include the Acadian Thruway interchange. This expansion is estimated to save $50 million for the project and shave off four years from the overall timeline. Once completed, there will be four travel lanes in each direction from the I-10/I-110 split to Acadian. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2023 with major lane restrictions beginning in 2024.
The work on this first segment of the widening project will include reducing I-10 to two travel lanes in each direction for an estimated total of one year during the planned four-year construction of Segment 1 between the I-10/I-110 split to Acadian beginning in 2024. DOTD is working to mitigate the traffic issues resulting from the two-lane phasing of this segment by implementing projects on surface streets, such as restriping and signal modifications and active signal management in the surrounding areas. DOTD will also be working with area industry, state agencies and other businesses to determine a plan that will assist in alleviating high traffic volumes during peak hours such as flexible work schedules, rerouting traffic and expanding Motorist Assistance Patrol coverage.
Community Connections
The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration has developed and adopted a series of guiding principles and toolbox of techniques for identifying and deploying transportation innovations, partnerships and technologies to bring communities together, and to connect people to services and opportunities. During the feasibility and Environmental Assessment stages of the project, a number of Context Sensitive Solutions were identified in dialogue with project stakeholders and community groups. These proposed physical improvements, documented in the reports and specifically in the FONSI linked below, are commitments by DOTD to the community as the I-10 widening project moves forward. The extended Segment 1 corridor contains four of these CSS improvements:
- The I-10 greenway will be a pedestrian and bicycle path which will link the existing downtown greenway network to the soon to be improved (through a separate project) bicycle and pedestrian pathways around the University Lakes.
- Noise Walls will line the widened interstate through the corridor. Preference polling of options for noise wall panel materials and designs are being offered.
- The new I-10 bridge spanning City Park Lake will feature aesthetic treatments to improve its appearance from local surface streets and monument towers to signal to interstate motorists they have “arrived” in Baton Rouge.
- Perkins Road Corridor Improvements will include better public parking for businesses, more and better safety lighting, multi-modal transportation improvements such as a better connected local street grid, pedestrian walkways and bicycle accommodations. Note public open house on May 19, 2022!
Public engagement activities began in late 2021 focused on the I-10 greenway corridor with adjoining neighborhoods of Old South Baton Rouge. Progress has been made to prioritize desired greenway amenities, determine their location(s), and DOTD has been initiating partnerships with local government and nonprofit agencies to secure maintenance agreements for all enhancements provided through the project. Additional community and stakeholder meetings will occur in 2022 to further refine proposed greenway designs.
Similarly, community and stakeholder meetings will be scheduled to focus on CSS improvements to the Perkins Road corridor in the vicinity of I-10. Techniques borrowed from FHWA’s Community Connections handbook and toolbox may include design charrettes or experiential public engagement, visualizations, virtual design and online preference polling to quantify feedback.
Watch the Events list on this website or subscribe to project e-newsletters to receive notification of the timing of these upcoming events. Both of these areas are on the homepage i10br.com.
Project Schedule
The Construction Phase Timeline provided was displayed at the February 2022 public open house events and applies to the extended Segment 1 area. Within an overall 4-year construction period, construction of temporary westbound lanes will begin in early 2023, and the restriction to 2 lanes – lasting for a year – will commence in early 2024.
