BATON ROUGE, LA — A nearly 50-year-old major interstate crossing over the Mississippi River will soon be receiving a face lift and modern structural improvements, according to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

The project to rehabilitate the two-mile-long I-20 bridge over the Mississippi River in Madison Parish is set to begin in the next couple of months. Built in 1973, the bridge connects Madison Parish to Warren County, Mississippi, and provides one of the few interstate roadway crossings over the river.

The $27.7-million project will provide a number of repairs including the bridge deck, electrical system and roadway lighting components.

“Ensuring these integral crossings over the Mississippi River are properly maintained and modernized is crucial to growing the state’s economy,” said DOTD Secretary Shawn D. Wilson, Ph.D. “This project will extend the service life of this bridge for decades to come, an example of strategically investing in our existing infrastructure with our available funding and maximizing the use of those dollars.”

The old deck will be resurfaced with new concrete to improve traction and preserve the structural aspects of the bridge flooring. The current electrical circuits will be replaced, in addition to the replacement of nearly 100 roadway lighting fixtures with a modern LED system.

Roadway fiber optics will also be replaced with new cameras and radar, which will integrate the system into Mississippi’s IT network. Additionally, the steel structural connections at certain locations on the bridge will be modified to improve resilience against all loads and conditions. New navigational lighting and aerial beacons will also be installed, along with improvements to the bridge monitoring system and enhancements to the inspection access walkways.

During construction, single lane closures will be required, though there will be no lane closures conducted in both directions at the same time in order to maintain traffic flow as much as possible. Work on the project is expected to begin mid-January 2020, and is anticipated to wrap up in early 2021, with progress dependent on weather conditions.