Portion of River Road to close for four months

An $8.85 million project to construct a seepage berm on the Mississippi River levee at Duncan Point in Baton Rouge will require the relocation of River Road, and as a result the roadway will be closed for approximately four months between Ben Hur Road and Trinity Lane. The work is needed as a result of damages sustained during the 2011 Mississippi River high-water event. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its non-federal sponsor, the Pontchartrain Levee District, will perform the work, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers–New Orleans District announced today. The closure of River Road south of Brightside Drive will have an impact on the traffic flow following LSU’s football games against Western Kentucky on Saturday and Arkansas on Nov. 25. All vehicles traveling south on River Road following the games will be forced to make a left turn onto Brightside Drive. Vehicles will then travel to Nicholson Drive, where they may turn southbound onto Nicholson. Vehicles in the Hayfield Lot on Gourrier Avenue will be forced to exit eastbound on Gourrier toward Nicholson Drive. Vehicles will not be allowed to travel west on Gourrier toward River Road. The intersection at Gourrier Avenue and River Road will be closed. Traffic patterns on Skip Bertman Drive and River Road will remain the same; there will be no change in the exit patterns for the Levee Lots on River Road, and there will be no contraflow on River Road going south from Gourrier to Brightside.