BATON ROUGE - Workers will block off the Acadian Thruway underpass between I-10 and Perkins Road over the next two weekends while crews replace the railroad bridge overhanging the highway. 

DOTD says the underpass will be closed off Jan. 7-8 and Jan. 14-15 amid work to elevate the railroad. The closures will happen between 12 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. each day.

The work will also cause rolling closures on S. Eugene Drive, Valley Street and Perkins Road that is anticipated to be approximately two hours on each street.

The bridge's wood pilings are being removed to accommodate more traffic and trucks since the Perkins Road exit is eventually being removed. The plan is to raise the railroad about four feet.

DOTD also plans to widen Acadian to make room for the additional traffic flow and to elevate the road by about a foot at the underpass, which is often flooded during heavy rain. That part of the project won't happen until 2025, however.