BATON ROUGE, LA — Governor John Bel Edwards and Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) Secretary Shawn D. Wilson, Ph.D., announces that work to widen and overlay I-12 between U.S. 190 and LA 59 will begin in the upcoming weeks. James Construction Group, LLC, was the apparent low bidder for the project, which is estimated to cost $55 million. The construction will also include widening six existing bridges along I-12.

DOTD is completing construction plans for the second phase of I-12 improvements in St. Tammany Parish, a future project that will widen the interstate between LA 21 and U.S. 190, scheduled for bid in the spring of 2020. For this phase, the parish received a $25-million Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) in December 2018, combined with a $7.2-million commitment from St. Tammany Parish and a $5-million contribution from DOTD. In addition, and in an effort to maximize the project’s impacts and minimize future costs, DOTD plans to include a third lane eastbound in the bid for this phase. The original grant application called for an extra lane westbound with the eastbound addition to take place when funding became available.

DOTD is also preparing plans for a third phase of I-12 improvements from LA 1077 to LA 21.

Each year USDOT redistributes federal funding from budgeted funds that were not used by other states or national programs to those states that successfully obligated their full federal highway funding allotment during the fiscal year. In August 2019, DOTD received $76.2 million of those federal funds, the 19th year in a row the state has received redistributed funds.

The stretch of I-12 between U.S. 190 and LA 59 sees over 76,000 vehicles per day. The project will add a third lane in each direction and include widening the existing bridges over U.S. 190, Ponchitolawa Creek and Tammany Trace. Construction will begin in early 2020 and is expected to last approximately 2.5 years, weather permitting. St. Tammany Parish is contributing $8 million to the project.