WALKER - While Livingston Parish residents scrambled to get things in order for the first day of school, DOTD worked overtime to reopen a main road. 

Cane Market Road in Walker was closed for about two weeks after a culvert underneath it collapsed. Two people were injured when they tried to drive over it. 

"What worried me is that it could've happened to anyone," said Derek Whatley. "We drive over that spot four or five times a day."

The Whatley's have had to go out of their way to maneuver around the closure.

"It took about two minutes to get to work and now it takes about 15," Christy Whatley said.

Before the road reopened late Thursday afternoon, they were worried about how their son was going to get to school. 

"How are they gonna get there? How are the routes going to change?"

The road officially reopened around 3 p.m Thursday.

DOTD says it wanted to make this repair a priority to make sure that it was open by the start of school. To do that, they declared the repair an emergency which forced crews to start a whole three days earlier. 

A welcome surprise for the Whatley's who thought they were going to have to rearrange their schedules again. 

"I was thinking it was going to be months."