South Louisiana Roads Face Rain And Construction This Weekend

(KMDL-FM) Getting from place to place across South Louisiana this weekend could be a bit tricky for a number of reasons this weekend. There are more than a few major road construction projects on some of the major roadways and highways around the area. Many of those could result in closures, lane closures, or delays.

a close up of a street sign on a fence — Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

The area is also expecting a significant rain threat beginning late in the day on Thursday and lasting through Sunday. This could lead to difficult visibility during heavy downpours. There could also be street and nuisance flooding in areas where a lot of rain falls over a short period of time.

Flooding Rains, UL Homecoming - What's Happening This Weekend

Another reason why getting around town might be slightly harder this weekend: there will likely be more visitors and traffic in and through the Lafayette area because of football. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is hosting homecoming festivities this weekend at Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium. So we anticipate extra visitors in town for that.

Plus, there will be a good bit of "just passin' through" traffic as fans from McNeese State and Lake Charles make their way east on I-10 through Lafayette on the way to Baton Rouge for Saturday's football game between the Cowboys and the Tigers. LSU is favored by almost as much as the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge speed limit in that game.

And speaking of I-10, here's where we start to see construction slowdowns. The eastbound and westbound lanes of I-10 at the St. Martin/Lafayette Parish Line will experience lane closures between Exit 115 (LA 347 Henderson/Cecilia) and Exit 127 (Whiskey Bay).

Westbound traffic on I-10 traveling out of Lafayette Parish and into Acadia Parish could experience slowdowns as rolling restrictions will remain in place over the next several days. Look for crews working the outside lanes, and please slow down and give them as much room as possible.

I-49 Construction and Lane Closures This Weekend

I-49 will also have construction and lane closures as we move into the weekend. The I-49 Northbound Exit Ramp at Exit 1B (I-10 West / Lake Charles): The ramp will experience nightly closures for asphalt operations. It will close from 8:00 p.m. Thursday, October 1, until 6:00 a.m. Friday, October 2, and again from 9:00 p.m. Friday, October 2, until 9:00 a.m. Saturday, October 3. Emergency vehicles will not have access and must use detours.

It is highly likely that many of these worksites will not be operational because of inclement weather over the weekend. Motorists are still cautioned to proceed slowly through construction areas even when crews are not present, especially when there is a potential for ponding water in the roadway and along the shoulder.

For other construction information from around the state, you can visit 511LA.org. This site offers not only construction closures but real-time traffic updates.

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Gallery Credit: Bruce Mikells