BATON ROUGE- The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development announced today that the Plaquemine ferry will resume normal service hours beginning Saturday, Dec. 8 at 9:30 a.m.

The ferry has been operating on extended hours after a crane on a barge collided with and damaged the Sunshine Bridge on October 12. Due to the incident, the bridge was completely closed and has now partially reopened.

The ferry expanded its operations to help relieve heavy traffic, but with the bridge's partial reopening the ferry will return to its regular hours.

Those hours will be:

-Monday through Friday, the first boat runs from 4:30 a.m. to 8 p.m

-Monday through Friday, the second boat runs from 5:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.

-Saturday and Sunday, one boat runs from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.

When two ferries are in operation, they are scheduled to depart every 15 minutes. When there is only one, it leaves every 30 minutes (departs Plaquemine at :00 and :30, Sunshine at :15 and :45).