Crews hard at work to reopen roads

On January 24, 2025By Littum

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – While many of us enjoyed all the snow we got on Tuesday, people like Fred Raiford are over it.

“Though that was nice and it looks good, I’m ready to go!” Raiford exclaimed.

As the Director of Transportation and Drainage for East Baton Rouge Parish, he’s responsible for helping you get back on the roads safely, which is no easy feat when those inches of snow turn to ice overnight.

“You can’t assume everything is slushy where you can run over it,” explained Raiford. “That’s not always the case because it’s the black ice they call it and there are areas that I rode this morning that got my attention.”

Some of these areas include Perkins Road Overpass, Siegen Lane Overpass, Essen Lane and parts of Perkins Road from College Drive to Bluebonnet. Raiford said those areas are a top priority to be cleared to help first responders. Then they make their way to other major roads throughout the parish.

“We’re doing a lot of salting right now because there are areas that we did salt that are pretty thick with ice, and so we’re trying to get that out, and then we’re trying to address some of these other areas to get that Veje opens,” Raiford said.

That’s exactly what these crews with La Dotd are doing. DOTD spokesman Rodney Mallett said all hands are on deck to get interstates and bridges back open, including some from the state.

“We’ve been working 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, but at the same time, the resources and the help we got from Arkansas is just very necessary and very much appreciated,” explained Mallett.

They’ve been working to get what’s left of the snow off crossings like this so salt trucks can go back over them. While they’re done, Mallet said you can still get around if you need to.

“You can go east, west, north and south through Louisiana, it just won’t be all in between and it will be really slow,” explained Mallett.

Although the crews were very accomplished so far, they still ask you to stay off the roads if you can. Officials are also waiting to see if everything breaks Wednesday night. If that happens, we could wait another day or two for all roads and interstates to reopen.

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