Work is underway on the four-mile Government Street “road diet,” a roughly $11.7 million project to trim the busy thoroughfare from four lanes to two.
Road crews began staging equipment earlier this month and started cutting away the old surface of the roadway and sidewalks near Evergreen Drive—not far from Baton Rouge Magnet High School—last Thursday, says Rodney Mallett, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
Construction is expected to take two years to complete.
Former Mayor Kip Holden first announced the long-awaited project in 2014, as part of the city-parish master plan FuturEBR. At the time, Holden said the goal of the redesign was to make Government Street a destination thoroughfare in Baton Rouge.
The project, which has been plagued with delays, includes the addition of sidewalks and bike paths from Interstate 110 to Lobdell Drive. The busy street will be reduced to two lanes, with a turn lane in between. A roundabout is planned for its intersection with Lobdell.
