LAFAYETTE, La. (The Daily Advertiser) – You may not be able to see it, but the groundwork of a $27 million project to widen Kaliste Saloom is underway.

The third phase of the project will be split into two separate operations, the first beginning early next year, Lafayette Consolidated Government engineer Mark Lavergne said Thursday.

That phase, called 3A, will be roadway construction from Grande Pointe Apartments, at 3606 Kaliste Saloom Road, to E Broussard Road.

“We are looking to bid that part of the project in the first quarter of 2017,” he said. “This is so large, a wide slot of contractors could bid on this. So we are going to try to leave it out for bid for six weeks.”

Over the next two years, 2.2 miles of Kaliste Saloom Road will be widened to five lanes with a multi-lane roundabout at the E Broussard Road intersection.

In March, Lafayette City-Parish councilwoman Liz Webb-Hebert hosted a town hall meeting to provide residents and business owners an update on the expansion.

Several expressed concerns that the project isn’t moving fast enough.

Lavergne said his office has received calls questioning the progress of the undertaking, which began in 2009 when Lafayette Consolidated Government took ownership of that stretch of road from the state and began the planning process.

“We’ve established the backbone of the project. It’s unfortunate because much of that is out of sight,” Lavergne said. “I can see people’s question of ‘Hey, what’s going on and what’s taking so long?’ But we’ve been hard at work the whole time.”

The public works department has completed drainage and $3.3 million in water and sewer systems are being installed, he said. LCG has spent $4.4 million for right-of-ways and roughly $1 million for the project’s engineering.

The second portion of the project’s third phase will be widening Kaliste Saloom Road from Grand Pointe Apartments to the existing five lanes.

Some drivers will soon see the roadway’s new overlay.

The public meeting held in March was Webb-Hebert’s first town hall meeting since she took office in January. Since then, she’s organized a committee of volunteer residents living along Kaliste Saloom to address their issues as the project moves forward, she said.

“During that town hall meeting, people expressed their concerns that construction was not going to be finished until 2019,” Webb-Hebert said Thursday. “After hearing those concerns, I got with Tom Carroll with public works, and we are actually going to overlay and repave Kaliste Saloom. At the end of this month, it’s going to be paved.

“We heard them loud and clear. We don’t want them to live in inconvenience,” the councilwoman added. “Yes, construction is ugly, but we were able to do that (repave), so that’s wonderful.”