BATON ROUGE — Two overturned 18-wheelers on consecutive days shut down portions of the interstate and caused hours of traffic problems for drivers across the Baton Rouge area.

Wednesday, an 18-wheeler blocked I-10 West near the Dalrymple Drive exit starting at 4 a.m. The interstate did not reopen until after 1 p.m., causing backups that rippled back to I-12 and led to gridlock on many surface streets in Baton Rouge.

Thursday morning, a truck overturned on the entrance ramp from Scenic Highway to I-110 South around 3:30 a.m. The ramp remained closed for more than five hours.

Mary Moss, a Baton Rouge resident, said she stayed home Wednesday, but her daughter was one of the thousands of drivers caught in the gridlock.

"A route that would normally take her 15 minutes took her two hours," Moss said.

Tatresa Eli, a CDL driver and Baton Rouge resident, said companies should take a closer look at how drivers are trained.

"I think they should train more than 4 weeks in truck driving school," Eli said. "Because obviously the truck drivers are not getting it or they're not paying attention to what they're doing on the road."

The crashes are renewing a push to find ways to ease traffic congestion around the capital city.

"They need to be better with traffic altogether, whether it's an accident or a normal day or whatever because the traffic is always horrible," Eli said.

State Sen. Rick Edmonds said he has been meeting with Gov. Jeff Landry, other lawmakers and transportation leaders to discuss potential solutions for nearly a year now. He said they are looking at an old plan to build a loop starting on I-10 in West Baton Rouge, connecting to US 190, crossing the old bridge and following Airline Highway to connect to I-12 and I-10.

Moss said she hopes leaders come up with more immediate solutions as well.

"It's an issue that needs to be researched," Moss said. "What would be the resolve the next time that it happens? A lot of investigation needs to take place. We can not sweep it under the rug. I think it's work for somebody."

That plan for an inner loop was rejected by a state transportation panel back in 2015. Edmonds did not give a timeline or cost estimate but said he hopes to secure funding and get a similar plan pushed through this time.