BATON ROUGE - State transit leaders announced details of a planned widening project for I-10 through parts of Ascension Parish.

I-10 will be widened from Highland Road in East Baton Rouge to Highway 73 in Ascension Parish.  The widening project covers about seven miles of interstate between the two parishes.  The governor said parts of the new interstate could be elevated, a necessity seen after the August flood closed parts of I-10 in the area. 

Construction would not start until sometime in the second-half of 2017.  Engineers expect the interstate project to cost about $60 million.  

State and local officials have discussed widening the interstate between Highland Road and the first eastbound Ascension Parish exit before.  An Ascension Parish widening project was discussed in a 2015 wish list of projects by DOTD.

I-10 is three lanes through most of Baton Rouge.  Eastbound widening ends at Highland Road and the three lanes of westbound travel begin there, too.

****************

Follow the publisher of this post on Twitter: @treyschmaltz