BATON ROUGE — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who was among the authors of a bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress, told WBRZ on Friday that while it's been more than four years since the legislation was approved, help really is on the way.

The Louisiana Republican this week announced $19 million in roadway safety grants for projects statewide, including three in the Baton Rouge area.

The projects include $1.2 million for the East Feliciana Parish Police Jury for "safety action planning" and demonstrations, $1.18 million to the Capitol Region Planning Commission for safety projects in the metro area and $160,000 for a "Safe Streets and Roads for All" project in Baker.

A recent study by the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Louisiana fair to poor marks for its infrastructure in 2025 — a C-minus overall and Ds for roads and bridges.

Four years on from the federal infrastructure bill, it's important to note that improvements take time, Cassidy said.

"You get the money out but it takes awhile to deploy, because you have got to do the engineering, you've got to do the environmentals," Cassidy said. "But now that money's coming, and you'll see every parish will have a bridge redone. We'll see roadwork across our state, which will be inconvenient at first, but in the long run it makes our state a better place to live."