HENDERSON, La. (KLFY) – Crews are widening a three and-a-half section of I-10 between Henderson and the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge for $56 million. 

The interstate will be widened from four to six lanes. 

You can feel that ground shake when heavy equipment pounds the old section of road. 

In December, the DOTD moved traffic from the outside westbound lanes of I-10 to the new inside lanes. The old lanes will be removed and replaced.         

From the Basing Bride heading westbound toward Henderson the interstate will be three lanes.  

However, the eastbound section from Henderson to the Basin Bridge will remain two lanes. 

“If you bring three lanes up to that basin bridge and you try to just squeeze them, that’s where you get all your accidents so you want to drop them on an exit ramp so that they’re going down the exit ramp and you have one way to go,” explained Bill Oliver, the DOTD District Administrator. 

Oliver said the new configuration is also safer than it was before. 

“Now moving that traffic opens up some room. Widens that out and allows, so traffic’s not as restricted coming through there especially at those choke points coming off the basin bridge,” he said. 

Just last month, the DOTD shifted westbound traffic on the seven-mile section of I-10 from I-49 to the Breaux Bridge exit. That’s a $129 million project. 

Traffic was moved to the new inside lanes. Crews are now working on the old outside lanes. 

The third and final section of the widening project is the middle section between Breaux Bridge and Henderson. 

It’s estimated to cost over $100 million. 

The DOTD said the project should go out for bid in the summer of 2019. 

The DOTD’s latest estimates show the section between Henderson and the basin bridge being finished in the summer of 2020. 

The stretch between I-49 and Breaux Bridge should be completed in the fall of 2020.