BATON ROUGE - Work will begin on the I-10 widening project next year, which means more people will move from the main interstate to side roads.

The City-Parish is working to sync traffic lights before the project causes more congestion. 

In 2024, the I-10 widening project will reduce traffic down to one lane in each direction, and authorities are preparing for more traffic flow on secondary roads. 

"Accidents happen on roadways, and you've got to divert traffic to other locations," said transportation and drainage director for East Baton Rouge, Fred Raiford. "Our new system that we will have in place allows us to do that pretty quickly."

MOVE-BR created a synchronization system that should allow for easy adjustments on intersections. 

Raiford also said that when people get frustrated with traffic on the interstate, they're going to look for other ways to get to where they need to be.

The City-Parish is responsible for 450 traffic lights. Once the upgrades are finished, roughly 300 traffic lights will be a part of the new syncing system. 

Officials hope to have these lights operating on sixteen different roadways before the project starts.