BATON ROUGE — The Comite River Diversion Canal Project is fully funded and more than ¾ of the way complete, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development said at the State Capitol on Thursday.

The Comite River Diversion is a flood risk management project that will connect the Comite River to the Mississippi River via a 12-mile diversion channel to reduce the risk of rain and river flooding.

Legislators wanted a more concrete timeline for when the project will be finished, but the state transportation department says it is not ready to provide one yet.

“I would think we would be able to present a realistic accurate timeline in short order, but currently as things exist right now...the information we need to make that prediction accurately,” LaDOTD secretary Joe Donahue said.

Donahue says issues with the relocation of two pipelines owned by Florida Gas Transmission have been resolved. The pipelines were the biggest problem holding up construction.

Originally, the project was due to be finished by December 2022. It was delayed to December 2025 in 2023.

Congressman Garrett Graves told WBRZ that the project could be finished by 2026.