BATON ROUGE - After months of stalled progress, the final phase of the Pecue Lane Expansion Project has begun.

Officials with the Department of Transportation and the city of Baton Rouge broke ground at the construction site Tuesday morning. 

“It is a good day for Louisiana, it’s a good day for Baton Rouge and this is going to be transformative for the face of this community," Shawn Wilson, Secretary for La DOTD, said.

In November, the department was faced with a tough decision when the bid for phase three came back $13 million higher than what they planned for. After about 45 days of deliberation, they secured the funding and decided to move forward with the project.

“This is huge to see a 30 plus year old project actually get designed and built and funded under one administration says that we put real work into it," Wilson said.

Phase three of the project includes building interstate on and off ramps, widening Pecue Lane between Airline and Perkins to four lanes, building a new bridge over Ward Creek, and constructing sidewalks. Wilson says, plans also call for a diverging diamond interchange, which will be only the second of its kind in the state of Louisiana.

“It’s going to be a much safer design considering the volume of traffic we expect this to draw. That’s going to be a huge win."

If construction goes as planned, the nearly $70 million project will wrap up in 2026.