BATON ROUGE – State road engineers are busy checking highways and bridges as water recedes from areas inundated by the flood last week.

More than 1,400 bridges have been checked and every highway that was flooded has also been scrutinized by experts, Shawn Wilson, the head of the state Department of Transportation and Development said in an appearance on WBRZ's morning show, 2une-In, Thursday. Wilson said crews are transitioning from inspections to repairs.

All parts of infrastructure are cleared – shoulders, culverts and drain conditions. The process is critical, Wilson said.

“Whenever there's water that attacks those bridges, we have to make sure everything is sound and stable before we put vehicles back on the roads,” he said.

The state is expecting even more people to be on already congested streets around Baton Rouge, too.

“We got a large number of folks in this state right now from other places that might not be accustomed to the grid that we have. I ask people to be patient. Much like what happened post-Katrina, traffic patterns are going to change, and we have to accommodate that.”

Eventually, though, DOTD expects to be able to make repairs and alleviate the added stress. Wilson continued, “You're going to see improvement on roads that will also alter those patterns, once we start to normalize. So once that happens, folks are going to have to shift again, and we just ask they will be safe and be patient with us as we get back on our feet.”

Later, Wilson said, experts will focus on flooded area of interstates 10, 12 and 55 – areas that sustained record flooding last week. Improvements will be made, he said.

WBRZ News 2 and WBRZ.com offer traffic tracking technology.  Watch live traffic flow reports each morning on 2une-In and get the latest information on WBRZ.com HERE.

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