The AARoads Blog

The third day of the southern trip from July, 2008. And the fourth, since a lot of the third day was unfortunately spent in boring parts of Tennessee.

Somewhere in all that kudzu, there is an old US-11 bridge.

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A New Orleans – and general south – trip from July of 2008.

This is a glass cateye reflector sign. There are four of them, and they all date back to about 1936 when this bridge in New Orleans was opened.

The Milky Way over partly cloudy skies. Lights from Shreveport are providing the orange glow.

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Construction for future Interstate 49 between Interstate 220 in Shreveport and the Arkansas state line is proceeding well. Current work is underway from the state line south 9.6 miles to Louisiana 2 east of Hosston. At least one overpass north of Louisiana 168 is already complete. Planned interchanges for the new 9.6 mile section will be located at Louisiana 168, Mira-Myrtis Road, and Louisiana 2.

Looking southward at the future mainlines for Interstate 49. Photo taken 09/04/09.

Looking northward at the progress of the future interchange with Louisiana 168 and Interstate 49. Work is progressing nicely on the bridge abutments as well as the bridge supports for the future overpass that will carry Louisiana 168 traffic over Interstate 49. Photo taken 09/04/09.

Section A, which follows the future interstate from the state line south to the first interchange at Louisiana 168, should be completed by Spring 2010. Section C, which goes from the interchange with Mira-Myrtis Road and ending at Louisiana 2, will see its completion later this fall, if not Spring 2010 as well. The entire 9.6 mile stretch will not be complete however until the fall of 2010 when segment B will be completed. Due to an initial lack of funds, this section did not see construction until after its adjoining sections. But thanks to stimulus money construction is now underway.

The remaining segments (D through K) are at various right-of-way acquisition stages with the majority of right-of-way purchases for the interstate being completed in mid-winter 2010. Only two segments (J and K – from Louisiana 1 to Interstate 220) are currently not funded.

There is also a feasibility study currently underway to determine the implications of routing Interstate 49 within the city limits of Shreveport, connecting Interstate 49 at its current terminus with Interstate 20 with the proposed interchange with Interstate 220 on the northwest side of the city. This inner city connector is proposed to be 3.6 miles in length and provide a more direct route for motorists through the city of Shreveport.

Speaking of carbon copying signs, perhaps it is about time that Interstate 10 guide signs in Mobile County, Alabama reflect Biloxi and/or New Orleans? Pascagoula made sense when Interstate 10 was originally built, because the freeway defaulted onto U.S. 90 at the state line for many years before Mississippi completed its portion. Nowadays, Pascagoula makes little sense, as Interstate 10 travels through Moss Point, Pascagoula’s neighbor to the north, and U.S. 90, the route that still travels to the coastal city, is not directly accessible from the freeway anymore. Yet all these years, little thought has been given into changing the control city to something else.

1974 Alabama official highway map.

Furthermore, Interstate 10 gains the control city of Mobile along eastbound from Gulfport and Biloxi through Moss Point. There’s no mention of Pascagoula outside of exit signs for Mississippi 613 and 63.

1971 Gousha Alabama/Georgia highway map.

The same can be said for Interstate 10′s control point from Slidell, Louisiana, which features the U.S. 90 city of Bay St. Louis. When Interstate 10 ended at Mississippi 607 (Exit 2) from Louisiana, it made sense to have Bay St. Louis, since MS 607 to U.S. 90 carried motorists directly into the Hancock County city. Nowadays Interstate 10 bypasses the community well to the north.

1971 Mississippi Gousha Mississippi highway map.

Throughout the years the same cities are carbon copied without any thought to updating the signs. However it is possible to change such designations. Texas officials altered signs in 2007 for U.S. 75 leading north from Dallas that replaced Sherman with McKinney…

Continuing with our I-49 corridor theme, it’s time to look at Shreveport’s non interstate-interstates. The Clyde Fant memorial parkway runs southeast from downtown along the Red River. It goes through miles of parkland and passes by the city’s major hospital and it’s major tourist attractions (the casinos). The view below looks north at downtown Shreveport from the Parkway. Click any images for a larger view.

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This past weekend afforded me with the opportunity to check on the status of some upper Gulf Coast road projects related to the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. The August 29, 2005 landfall of the historic storm not only devastated the New Orleans and Mississippi coastal area homes and businesses, but also washed out several key stretches of highway infrastructure. Included in the storm’s fury was the destruction of the U.S. 90 spans over both Biloxi Bay at Ocean Springs and St. Louis Bay and the collapse of the Interstate 10 twin spans over Lake Pontchartrain. Now over two years removed, recovery efforts are well underway!

Beginning in the east, the U.S. 90 Ocean Springs Bridge is finally open to traffic after 18 months of work. Initially opened to traffic on November 1, 2007, the bridge presently carries two lanes of traffic on a span that eventually will accommodate six lanes and a pedestrian/bicycle path. The span travels much higher than the original four-lane crossing, thus negating the need for a draw-span. See MDOT’s BiloxiBayBridge page for more details on the construction, which is slated for completion on April 16, 2008, with a full bridge opening on March 28, 2008. Work began on June 16, 2006.

U.S. 90 first spans the CSX Railroad line over an arm of the Old Fort Bayou before ascending along the high-level Biloxi Bay Bridge. Features of the new span include a retro-style guard rail and light yellow paint motif.

Continuing west, the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina becomes increasingly evident as one leaves Biloxi and enters Gulfport, Long Beach, and Pass Christian. Presently crews are repaving the U.S. 90 roadway, which remains somewhat bumpy after the Hurricane.

Some new development has occurred on the stretch, but much of it remains abandoned or clear of any structures. One such structure that was replaced is the St. Louis Bay Bridge of U.S. 90. Crews opened half of the eventual four-lane bridge on May 17, 2007, linking the city of Bay St. Louis with Pass Christian. As of December 10, 2007, the span still carries two-lanes and a 12-foot pedestrian/bicycle path.

U.S. 90 westbound on the St. Louis Bay Bridge – December 10, 2007. Traffic shifted from the completed eastbound lanes onto the westbound lanes on November 26, 2007 so that contractors could finish the final elements of the bridge including lighting, signs, and railing.

Construction on the St. Louis Bay Bridge commenced on June 7, 2006, just three months after demolition began on the remnants of the original span. U.S. 90 originally traveled along a two four-lane draw bridge, but with an 85 foot clearance on the new span, motorists will not longer suffer delays from marine traffic below. The $266.8 million project is near completion.

U.S. 90 remains a somewhat lonely road from its partition with Mississippi 607 in western Hancock County. Continuing from there through the Pearlington area, a series of truss, lift, and pony truss bridges carry the two-lane highway through bayou country. Once U.S. 90 nears the Rigolets, a waterway that joins Lake Pontchartrain to the west with Lake Borgne to the east, another bridge project is well underway. Crossing the Rigolets is the narrow two-lane Fort Pike Bridge, a truss with a swing span first opened to traffic in 1930.

The stretch of U.S. 90 suffered damaged due to Katrina’s storm surge, however the bridge suffered limited damage structurally (but major damage to its electrical system). LADOTD’s replacement project of the aging span was already underway when Hurricane Katrina made landfall. However contractors working on the span were pulled away from the project for emergency repairs to the Interstate 10 bridges over Escambia Bay after Hurricane Ivan.

Looking east at the original Fort Pike Bridge and its future replacement at the Rigolets in eastern Orleans Parish.

A three-year construction project is underway to build a 5,500-long span with a 70 foot clearance. No longer will motorists experience anxiety when crossing the waterway on 10 feet lanes as the new bridge will carry two 12 foot lanes with 12 foot shoulders. Work began on the $50.6-million project November 2004 with an expected completion by June 2008.

Another of the three crossings between Orleans and St. Tammany Parish is that of the twin bridges of Interstate 10 over Lake Pontchartrain. These, like those of Interstate 10′s crossing of Escambia Bay in Florida, suffered the same fate of the U.S. 90 bridges in Mississippi with storm surges higher than the bridge itself toppling the concrete decks into the lake waters below. For a short time period, there was no Interstate 10 crossing between New Orleans and Slidell, with the narrow U.S. 11 bridge carrying the entire load. However an interim solution arose that salvaged submerged bridge deck components in conjunction with temporary metal-deck trusses.

Currently Interstate 10 traffic still utilizes a combination of the original bridges and those temporary metal trusses, similar to what travelers endured for several years at Pensacola. Construction is well underway however on the eventual replacement of the original four lane crossing with a much higher set of three lane bridges along the eastbound side. Costing $800-million, the twin-span replacement project will result in bridges ranging between 15 and 28 feet higher than the original bridges. Opening of the future westbound bridge is expected by late 2009. That span will carry four lanes of travel as crews work on the two-year completion of the new eastbound bridge.

Spanning Interstate 10 along U.S. 11 at Irish Bayou. Work on the Interstate 10 replacement spans is still in the early stages.

Four overall lanes of traffic are still accommodated along the 1965-built bridges. When the westbound bridge opens in 2009, demolition will begin on the original spans.

In related news, crews put the finishing touches on the new westbound bridge carrying Interstate 10 across Escambia Bay this week (December 12, 2007). Work was planned for completion by Christmas, but now cross country travelers and commuters alike will reap the benefits of the three-year $245-million construction job done in the wake of Hurricane Ivan. The new spans travel 25 feet higher than original shoulder less two-lane bridges. Drivers may now safely span Escambia Bay along three overall lanes per direction that includes shoulders on both the inside and outside lanes.

A look at the Escambia Bay Bridge project just four days prior to the opening of the new westbound bridge. Portions of the original bridge are being used to create an artificial reef in the offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

As it stands now, the bridge carries six overall lanes across the bay. Eastbound traffic reduces to two lanes once reaching land in Santa Rosa County. The third westbound lane becomes exit-only for the U.S. 90 (Exit 17) folded-diamond interchange. It is expected that Interstate 10 will be widened to six-lanes overall between Exit 17 and Exit 13 (Florida 291 / Davis Highway) in the near future.

Sources:

Reconstruction Of The Bay St. Louis Bridge - MDOT

“Top Louisiana Construction Projects (2005),” McGraw-Hill Construction.

“Gov reopens I-10 bridge.” Pensacola News Journal, December 12, 2007.

19 miles of the 37-mile stretch of future Interstate 49 between Interstate 220 and the Arkansas state line are currently under construction. Despite a $280 million shortfall, the $560 project is still expected to be completed by 2012. As mentioned in a previous blogpost, Arkansas has completed most of future Interstate 49 from Texarkana southward toward the Louisiana state line. Dubbed Arkansas 549, the new freeway ends three miles north of Louisiana and awaits a highway to which to connect south of the border.

Signs of Interstate 49 construction appear as a cleared right-of-way in this aerial photograph of the Mira, Louisiana area.

Down in Shreveport, present plans take Interstate 49 westward along the Louisiana 3132 Inner Loop freeway to the junction with Interstate 20 & 220 and northward along Interstate 220 to a point between Exits 5 and 7. A four-level stack interchange was built originally between Interstate 20 and the current north end of Interstate 49 with the intentions that Interstate 49 continue directly north through the city. Plans for that were dropped because or rising costs and neighborhood opposition, and thus the ‘bypass route” was adopted for future Interstate 49.

Looking at the Interstate 20 & 49 symmetrical stack interchange in Shreveport, Louisiana. Ghost ramps may or may not tie into future Interstate 49 heading north. Otherwise high-speed ramps end unceremoniously at Murphy Street, Pierre Avenue, and Pete Harris Drive north of Interstate 20.

Times have changed however, and the consensus now is that Interstate 49 should continue north from its current north end through the city as opposed to bypassing it via Louisiana 3132 and Interstate 220. Areas north of the Interstate 20 stack interchange have deteriorated since the freeway was built and thus opposition has diminished. Additionally local officials are expressing support for the ‘in-city’ routing of interstate 49 as well. With all that stated, the main issue however is funding, and at a cost of $320 million, the in-city routing remains somewhat uncertain at this time.

Sources:

1. I-49 North funding $280M short. The News Star (Shreveport, LA), June 2, 2007.
2. Steven Delery

Construction on the destroyed US 90 bridge over the mouth of Biloxi Bay is proceeding at a rapid rate. I guess it takes a hurricane to whip the asses of the DOTs into gear. This photo from April of this year shows just how quickly the process is going. It’s not China-fast, but in terms of US road construction they are going fairly quickly. AAroads has updated road photos post-Katrina in both Mississippi and Louisiana on site, check them out!

Click for larger

My first trip through New Orleans in 2006 occurred in early January on a cross-country voyage along Interstate 10. I was quite stunned with the devastation that took place in the Big Easy (it looked as bad as it was portrayed in TV), but had little sunlight to work with as far as road photography went. So I returned to Southeast Louisiana on June 10th to redocument the freeways for the website.

This is how the frontage along Interstate 10 eastbound in New Orleans East looked in January

The areas of New Orleans East resembled a post-apocolyptic landscape and were vastly the same between January and June, meaning recovery is slow if at all there. From the abandoned Six Flags theme park to the gutted Sam’s Club and Walmarts and darkened street lights, the area remains very bleak almost 9 months removed from Hurricane Katrina’s August 29, 2005 landfall. The freeways meanwhile are all open to traffic at full capacity; even the I-10 twin spans carry two lanes in each direction. Some signs of the hurricane are visible in the form of damaged or missing signs, bent street lamps, and water line stains on the sound walls near the Jefferson Parish line.

Katrina’s wrath is still quite evident along Interstate 10 westbound through New Orleans East in June of 2006.
See the freeways for yourself at at http://www.southeastroads.com/louisiana.html