A $72 million project to widen Interstate 10 from Highland Road in Baton Rouge to La. Hwy. 73 in suburban Ascension Parish will start early next year and take up to 2 1/2 years to finish, state officials announced Tuesday.

The widening, which will expand the corridor from four lanes to six lanes, was not linked to the failed drive to increase Louisiana's gasoline tax.

The plan was announced in September. The money already was allotted and not dependent on additional state monies.

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A key legislative panel Monday approved the state's plan to widen Interstate 10 from Highlan

"The reality is that major enhancements like this I-10 project will be very limited moving forward due to the current revenues for transportation," Shawn Wilson, secretary for the state Department of Transportation and Development, said in a statement.

Wilson said the work will be done by James Construction Group LLC.

"Our financial means are very limited compared to our need, but we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to deliver what we can," Gov. John Bel Edwards said.

The roughly seven-mile stretch set for widening is used by about 80,000 motorists per day.

The governor has called it one of the most congested sections of highway in Louisiana.

Eastbound traffic on weekdays is regularly backed up, and travelers getting off at Highland Road are often stopped on the interstate two miles or more from the exit.

The work will be financed with a combination of state and federal dollars, including more than $40 million in federal earmarks originally intended for other projects in Louisiana. Those projects are supposed to be delayed, not scrapped.

The pricetag was originally $60 million but was raised to $72 million to make improvements at Highland Road. However, utilities and work on Highland Road will be completed in the future.

Plans to widen I-10 have won praise from lawmakers in the Baton Rouge area, which is considered the most congested city in a state and is plagued by transportation problems.

The undertaking is called design-build, which allows the designer and contractor to collaborate so that the work can be done three or four months faster.

The work will extend from west of Highland Road to the La. 73 interchange, which is the Prairieville/Geismar exit.

The La. 42 overpass structures will also be replaced.

The high-profile expansion is something of an outlier amid the state's $13.1 billion backlog of road and bridge projects.

"We are moving the boundaries of innovation to deliver important projects for Louisiana, but this project is only one of many that are desperately needed to enhance the I-10 freight corridor," Edwards said.

Follow Will Sentell on Twitter, @WillSentell.

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