BATON ROUGE - One of the most traveled roads near LSU's campus wasn't open for the first day of classes, but according to an EBR Transpiration and Drainage spokesperson, it is set to reopen Tuesday afternoon.

The closure of East State Street came after crews notice support problems under the 58-year-old bridge. According to Chief Engineer Tom Stephens, all of the support structures have been fixed and until today, crews were working on the final step in the project. 

The final step includes placing another concrete structure to connect to the bridge to the road. The majority of East Street was closed last month and since then has only been open to local traffic to those who live along the road. Once the project started, workers found another structure issue on the right side of the bridge that also needed repairs. 

The biggest issue delaying the project was the on-and-off rain showers in Baton Rouge. Stephens says after one rain shower, the bridge can fill up with five feet of water. It took crew members half a day to pump it all out, which is only added to the delay. 

Officials estimated the roadway would be reopen around noon, but ended up pushing the time back to 2 p.m. 

JUST IN: EBR Transportation and Drainage Director Fred Raiford just told me that the East State Street Bridge will be open by lunchtime today @WBRZ

It has been closed for emergency repairs since July 12th pic.twitter.com/2lRW0QjLTe

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