BATON ROUGE - An engineer is making a pitch these days to officials in suburban Baton Rouge parishes: He's seeking to jump-start a highway project in anticipation of the state someday building a new Mississippi River bridge between Baton Rouge and Donaldsonville.

Wilfred Barry, president of Baton Rouge engineering firm SJB Group, says the project involves widening LA Highway 30 from two to four lanes at a cost projected to be around $225 million.

The engineer says modeling shows Highway 30's role as a commuter corridor will only intensify with further congestion on Interstate 10 and the likely addition of a new Mississippi River bridge.