Critical I-10 Bridge Reopens in N.O.
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The new Interstate 10 Twin Span Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans has opened, replacing the twin spans wrecked by Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast six years ago.
Stretching more than 5 miles over the lake, the new twin spans are a critical east-west economic link for the city, with 8.6 million tons of commercial shipments traveling to and from the Port of New Orleans each year, transportation officials said.
Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez was on hand for the Sept. 8 opening ceremony, along with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
“As the newest part of the New Orleans landscape, these bridges will ease congestion and allow area residents to spend more time doing things they enjoy as well as serve as an evacuation route,” said Mendez.
“Together they are a masterpiece of American engineering and can help the region start a new chapter,” he added.
Several months ahead of schedule, the reopening marked a milestone in the recovery of the Gulf Coast region, officials said.
About 55,000 vehicles travel across the I-10 Twin Span Bridge from Orleans to St. Tammany Parishes, not only daily commuters but high volumes of truck traffic, said Jodi Conachen, communications director for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
“These trucks serve the oil refineries and agri-business of Louisiana, as well as move products across the country,” Conachen said.
The new spans have wider shoulders and three lanes in each direction, while the old spans had only two lanes. At $803 million, the new crossing is one of the most expensive public works projects in Louisiana history, officials said.
The old spans, built in 1965, stood only 9 feet above the lake, but the new bridges “at the crest . . . are 30 feet high — 21 feet taller than their predecessors, making the pair of new bridges more resistant to storm surge,” the FHWA said.
The state designed the new bridges to last 100 years, and they sit atop an “improved anchoring system” that will prevent them from “floating” off the structures as happened during Katrina’s storm surge, the FHWA said.
After the 2005 hurricane badly damaged the spans, temporary repairs were made that allowed traffic to use them, but the damage to the spans and the ramps was such that traffic bottlenecks were common.
