BATON ROUGE — A five-year road project connecting Reiger Road and Pecue Lane is causing confusion for some drivers. While the road is still under construction and not expected to open until 2026, some GPS systems are already routing drivers along the unfinished route.

"We're going to connect Reiger to Pecue, and we're building on and off-ramps to the interstates, so this is not a project you are going to do in a short period of time," Rodney Mallet with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development said.

Drivers who ignore the "road closed" signs and follow their GPS could be ticketed.

Despite the signs, Jordan Long, a driver who frequently uses the road, said, "I think people have already integrated it into their morning commute, so I’m yeah, people are definitely already using it.”

The $52 million project, part of the Move EBR initiative, will eventually create two lanes in each direction between Airline Highway and Perkins Road, and a new I-10 ramp.

According to Helen Badeaux, who works on Reiger Road, the new connection will change the flow of traffic and benefit local businesses. “It’s a side road more than it is a main road, so it would kind of become a main road for cutting through,” she said.

Mallet added that the project is a "huge undertaking" but will be "very beneficial to our region once it’s completed."