The Bridge connecting New Orleans and Slidell opens tomorrow

The east bound lanes of the "Twin Spans" I-10 bridge which traverses five miles over Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans East to Slidell will open tomorrow afternoon. The bridges were severely damaged by the hurricane. The interstate will go from three lanes to one lane but for the past six weeks it has gone from three lanes to no lanes forcing an ungodly amount of traffic through Slidell to an old bridge paralleling the interstate. The other half of the "twin span" is scheduled to be opened in January getting traffic back to normal. The current repair project was done 17 days ahead of schedule. As the Beatles might say, "its getting better all the time."

i have to say i'm v. impressed w. how quickly some repairs are being made

Some refuse haulers walked off the job today in St Tammany after a dispute with contractors and property owners in an upscale Slidell neighborhood took umbrage that FEMA wanted to put a trailor park on their golf course but every day there is at least as much good news as bad. Bar owners in New Orleans are crossing swords with the city about the midnight curfew. Midnight is when things are supposed to start in the Big Easy, not end. We are on the track to normalcy.

which, I believe, should be the city's motto, considering we're gonna have to be good for many years to come.

When I heard that puppy went down, and saw pix of the wreckage, I figured it would be two to three years before the Twin Span was back up. I was even cobbling together a plan to take hovercraft from England that have been put out of business by the Chunnel (Lake Pontchartrain is too shallow for traditional ferry boats) and put them into service there, perhaps to Lakefront Airport on the N.O. side. That was going to be my big plan that would get me noticed by the movers and shakers... sigh... but man, you guys rock! :yourock:

The traffic was horrendous pre-hurricane. Hovercrafts could depart Slidell to the Lakefront Airport to the North and to Chalmette and New Orleans East. You could even do business between New Orleans and Gulfport. Great Idea.

I am sort of a dilettante amateur urban planner; it just comes as second nature to me. None of my plans are doing any good on a laptop in the Hawaiian standard time zone, though. Who wants 'em who would be willing to listen to someone with absolutely no qualifications or experience?

OMG, I think I just got myself a Supreme Court appointment... :evilgrin:

edit: I was doing this back when I lived in N.O. 15 years ago, when visionaries there were kind of thought of as kooks :-)

when the path of least resistance to a solution was ask those who did the job. Ask a Sailor for an idea. Throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. Brain storm. There is (was) no such thing as a bad idea. Hovercraft transportation. Why Not? Convince suburbanites that mass transportation is a cosmic idea? How? I don't know but we got several tons of brain matter to consider that pressing question. That's what is going on in and around New Orleans right now. Brainstorming. Its a beauty to behold.

I had a poster in my office when I was in the Navy; a Henry Ford quote - "WHETHER YOU THINK YOU CAN OR YOU CAN'T, YOU'RE RIGHT" It really cut down on visits from Sailors who were going to tell me they couldn't do something.

And we all know how intense a storm can get along the Gulf Coast!

But where do we expats fit in? markus is another; do check out his "Wet Bank Guide" blog at:

http://wetbankguide.blogspot.com

Where's the forum for those of us who were scattered all over the place even before Katrina?

The construction company set up pontoons and cannibalized the west bound span to fix the east bound span. Did it 17 days ahead of schedule and will get a big bonus for completing the job ahead of time. The other span is scheduled to be done in January. I'm looking for a Thanksgiving opening ceremony.

Its gonna be awhile before I get down that way but the construction company in question is pretty handy with this kind of work. I wanna get to the Quarter so bad it hurts and this bridge is my path of least resistance but I'll continue to be patient.

:)

the bridge was "made" to be damaged -- flooding was expected.

They aren't rebuilding the bridge from scratch, rather first they insure they pilings are still secure -- a routine thing done after any significant windstorm. My understanding is that most/all of them were.

Then they litterally place preformed sections down and attache them to the pilings. In this case they canabalized the other side for the sections they needed.

Finally, they paint, and voila -- insta bridge. The longest time issue is the manufactorering the formed sections.