BATON ROUGE - Westbound traffic on I-10 was brought to a halt throughout much of Baton Rouge thanks largely to scheduled maintenance to repair an expansion joint.

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Overnight road work on LA 1 South at the Intracoastal Bridge reportedly ran hours late, causing a nine mile traffic jam. The scheduled overnight lane closure was supposed to last from 7 p.m. Monday to 4 a.m. Tuesday.

A spokesperson with DOTD says the work ran late after the expansion joint had more damage to it than previously thought. 

“Last night when we went in there to remove and repair that expansion joint, there was much more damage than anticipated so it took longer to repair. That’s why we had the lane closure for extra time this morning," said Rodney Mallett with DOTD.

Mallett says angry drivers can blame the outdated infrastructure. The Intracoastal Canal bridge is over 62 years old and in constant need of maintenance.

“This is a great example of why we need that new bridge. This other bridge is 62 years old. The new bridge, the first part of it will be complete next year and we’ll be able to move traffic off of the 62 year old bridge and onto the new bridge," said Mallett.

Work to replace the current Intracoastal bridge with a new, separate structure began in April. 

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