BATON ROUGE -  A nearly 20 mile-long delay is stretching west from Baton Rouge toward Lafayette starting at the foot of the Mississippi River Bridge as holiday traffic combines with Friday commuters to drag eastbound travel to a near standstill.

LA DOTD took to Twitter early Friday afternoon to advise motorists that heavier than normal delays could be expected on I-10 East between Lafayette and Baton Rouge for the rest of the day due to the increased volume associated travelers hitting the road ahead of a long holiday weekend. While eastward travel has been free of accidents for nearly all of the afternoon, congestion is continuing to build as the evening commute settled in.

A check of Baton Rouge traffic incidents at 4:20 p.m. showed a crash with injury in the westbound direction of the interstate at the I-10/12 split.

Looks like two cars involved I-12 Westbound near Essen. Not good. Traffic is horrible. pic.twitter.com/WA5NRr84nY

— Michael Shingleton (@ShingletonWBRZ) July 1, 2016

This congestion began to stack up on I-10 East starting around the bridge. Earlier in the afternoon, seven miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic stretched out on I-10 East past the Lobdell exit. The traffic situation will only multiply in intensity should wrecks result in lane closures.

Check back with this story throughout the afternoon for the latest on the developing traffic situation in and around Baton Rouge.