BATON ROUGE - A plan to widen I-12 in the capital area may finally come to fruition next year.

State Senator Dale Erdey told the Advocate Thursday that he expects the project to be "up and running sometime next year."

The proposal allowing high occupancy vehicle lanes between the I-10/I-12 split and Walker was easily passed in the Louisiana legislature earlier this year. It will transform the wide shoulder spaces on both sides of I-12 into new travel lanes. 

Cars and trucks utilizing the new lanes would need to be carrying at least one passenger, though officials are still figuring out how to handle the lanes outside of rush hour.