FERRIDAY — Work to widen the intersection of U.S. 84 and E.E. Wallace Boulevard in Ferriday has begun.

The project — which will improve the turning radius at the 90-degree intersection to allow more room for large trucks making the turn onto U.S. 84 — is expected to last between 30 to 40 days, according to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD).

“We wanted to improve the turning radius for the big trucks so they wouldn’t have to make the turn into other lanes — this is basically a safety project,” LaDOTD District Administrator Kenneth Mason said. “Hopefully it will also improve the flow of traffic.”

In addition to the road work, the project will include installing new traffic signals at the intersection.

The work for the project — which has been delayed several times — is being completed by T.L. Construction LLC of Alexandria, which was awarded a $795,339 bid for the project last summer.

While the work is ongoing, the LaDOTD has given U.S. 84 an alternate route that, from Vidalia, would include taking Louisiana 131 to Louisiana 15 and taking Louisiana 15 until it reconnects with U.S. 84 just west of Ferriday.

Ferriday Mayor Gene Allen said he is unhappy with how the construction and rerouting were implemented.

“We were not advised of anything,” Allen said. “They blocked traffic and did not tell us anything. They didn’t give us any details.”

The town has not done any planning for how to deal with the re-routing — and how some property owners will have to deal with it — because it was not aware of when construction would start, Allen said.

Mason said the start of construction wasn’t a surprise.

“This is no secret — it has been on the books for years,” he said. “We’ve put up detour signs, and there are local streets that people in the know can use, and that may lead to there being more traffic in an area than people are used to, but we are going to keep a close monitor on the large trucks, and if that gets to be a problem we are going to do something that ensures they take the detour.”

Mason said the LaDOTD will be watching to ensure large trucks don’t start using Louisiana 3232 — the short connector between U.S. 84 and Louisiana 15 near the Pentecostals of the Miss-Lou outside Ferriday — because it is not meant to handle lots of heavy truck traffic.

“Any time there is construction, there is always an inconvenience,” he said.