ST. GEORGE — Louisiana highway officials said Pecue Lane will have a new traffic pattern on Monday to introduce motorists to a "diverging diamond" interchange but that ramps to Interstate 10 won't open until next month.

State and parish road crews have been improving Pecue Lane between Perkins Road and Airline Highway, turning the old country road into a four-lane thoroughfare. Where it meets I-10, drivers will cross over to what would seem the "wrong" side of the road to make left turns.

"The diverging diamond is popular across the country and other parts of the world because it’s safer," said Rodney Mallett, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. "It minimizes the amount of conflict points that you’re going to have, especially when you’re making left turns at a signal.

"You don’t have that anymore, and because you don’t have that anymore, it helps traffic flow and minimizes congestion because you’re not having that extra time at the signal for people to turn left," he said.

 The state has a similar intersection at Loyola Avenue in Kenner, where traffic leaves I-10 to enter the New Orleans International Airport.

The new intersection in St. George is expected to take pressure off exits at Siegen Lane and Highland Road, which serve the growing area of southeastern East Baton Rouge Parish. A separate road, Rieger Road, now connects Pecue and Siegen without requiring motorists to get on the highway.

Mallett said the diverging diamond interchange design also allowed engineers to work around an area of wetlands on the south side of Interstate 10 and a set of power transmission lines.

The state was responsible for improvements at the I-10 interchange while the voter-approved East Baton Rouge Parish MovEBR road improvement plan took on improving the rest of Pecue between Perkins and Airline.

The project cost more than $50 million.