I-10 currently is a four-lane rural interstate facility west of US 301 and an urban interstate facility just east of US 301. The first citywide interchange joins US 301 with I-10 at Exit 343. Through this area US 301 is a four-lane rural arterial outside of the city limits and a four-lane urban arterial inside the city limits. There are numerous driveways and developed land uses along the entire urban section and much of the rural sections.

The need of the project is to enhance safety, roadway capacity, traffic operations, and interchange modifications. The project is an outgrowth of the I-10 Master Plan Study, which recommends a series of traffic operation and safety improvements to the I-10/US 301 interchange. The master plan identified several safety needs including separating turning vehicles from the US 301 mainline and driveway access. Other concerns include high truck traffic, roadway crashes, intersection improvements, access management, and signage.

The main objectives of this study are to develop viable alternatives that will improve safety, roadway capacity, and traffic operations and evaluate the impacts of those alternatives to the natural, social, cultural, physical environment, and access to the existing businesses within the interchange and study limits.

The study will document the requirements for preliminary design, including existing conditions, typical sections, traffic analysis, interchange modification analysis, structural analysis, right-of-way requirements, environmental impacts, and costs of improvements.