ZACHARY - The Louisiana National Cemetery in East Baton Rouge Parish is expanding. It's adding new elements for visitors and space to bury loved ones.

A total of 2,400 crypt spaces for casket burials have already been installed and will be put to use in the next year and a half or so. Several other areas are under construction, including a cremation field with 300 burial sites, a committal shelter, administration building/public information center, memorial wall area, an above-ground cremation inurnment space with 1,000 niches, and the main flag pole assembly area designed for ceremonies.

Louisiana National Cemetery, which opened in 2012, serves thousands of veterans and eligible family members in the parish and surrounding area. The facility staff has been working out of a trailer structure since it opened.

Louisiana National Cemetery Complex Director Maurice Roan has been at the helm since 2012 and has seen first-hand how veteran burial space is needed in the community.

"It's somewhere where they can feel proud and feel privacy when they come in to visit their loved ones," Roan said. "It makes the families really proud when they come into a place like this and they know that their loved one is going to be taken care of from now on. It means a lot to the community also."

Crypt expansions like the one that recently happened are based on the internment rate. Roan thinks with the additional 2,400 crypts will be enough burial space to last 10 years. Louisiana National Cemetery itself is made up of 103.8 acres and was purchased in 2011. The Louisiana National Cemetery Complex is comprised of the Louisiana National Cemetery in Zachary, the Baton Rouge National Cemetery, Port Hudson National Cemetery, and the Alexandria National Cemetery.