BATON ROUGE - For nearly a year, Nicholson Drive has been stripped of its top layer, making a rough ride for drivers. 

An overlay of LA 30 between LSU and downtown Baton Rouge is only one aspect of a much larger project that involves re-aligning the I-10 off-ramp to meet with Oklahoma Street. Sidewalks will also eventually line that stretch of Nicholson.

The road was in rough shape before construction started. According to LaDOTD, crews discovered the corridor needed much more drainage work than originally thought.

DOTD did not discover the need for extensive drainage work until after the road was milled. The additional planning and design work caused a months-long delay.

"You know we get those summer flash floods quite a bit and Nicholson will flood in a flash flood. So it really needed some extra drainage work," Mallett said.

That issue has since been fixed, and Thursday, crews were seen on the corner of Nicholson and Oklahoma Street with an excavator. Patching has begun on the roadway and once the drainage work is complete, the much-needed overlay will take place.

The entire project including the new I-10 off ramp to Oklahoma Street will be finished by next football season, weather permitting. A new traffic signal will be installed at LA 30 and Oklahoma Street before the end of the year.