BATON ROUGE - DOTD officials announced plans to widen the roadway between the I-10/I-12 split and College Drive. 

"You're going to have new lanes that are going to be added for the right turn at College, in what is now the shoulder or the grass area. You're going to have some connections to pavements and you're going to have a different transition. Instead of 12 being on the outside, I-12 is going to be on the inside. I10 will then be on the outside," says Shawn Wilson, DOTD Secretary.

Officials say this will eliminate the 'weaving' drivers are forced to do across the wide stretch of lanes that holds up traffic. DOTD said that the project is long overdue.

"This is a result of plans that we would've loved to have done 15-20 years ago, but we didn't have the will politically to get it done or the resources."

But now, the resources are being put to work. This portion of the project is expected to cost $52 million alone, and the entire project will ring in about $1 billion.

The first stage of the widening plan is to prep work: clearing and grubbing to make way for added lanes to keep traffic running smoothly.

With all of the activity that roads are already busy, it might not cause more of a headache for drivers.

"Most of the traffic that you're going to see will be related to what we call rubber necking or congestion that's related to backups. But most of the construction will occur in the median," said DOTD officials overseeing the project.

For every tree cut down in the clearing process, two trees will be planted.

The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2022.