BATON ROUGE- Officials say there will be periodic closures on Essen Lane Tuesday.

Starting at 9 a.m., contractors will begin activating the new traffic signals on Essen Lane at Picardy Avenue. As a result, crews will be required to periodically stop traffic on Essen Lane in order to remove the old light signals.

The closures are estimated to last no longer than 15 minutes at a time. All intermittent closures are expected to end by noon, according to a release.

The new traffic lights are part of a project to widen Essen Lane. The project will widen both the east and west sides of the roadway in an effort to add a third northbound travel lane. The project is expected to be finished in spring of this year.