Yeah, I have to say… stay out of eastern New Orleans and Slidell if you can. They were hit the hardest by the storm, and the Twin Spans were demolished. I think they’re still just the Single Span at this point.
I don’t know how folks without family or friends to stay with in the city are going to manage coming down to Mardi Gras. Even hotels in Baton Rouge are booked solid for the foreseeable future.
One consideration for those with airline problems is to fly into Baton Rouge Metro Airport (BTR) and drive down… it’s only a 75-90 minute drive. I think we still have more flights coming in here than in New Orleans.
Metairie’s hotels looked pretty used up when I left town about 3 weeks ago. Still worth a look though, and you should be able to get to the French Quarter from most parts of Metairie/Jefferson/River Ridge within 15-45 minutes, depending on what time of day you’re out driving.
That thread is about an old email. I don’t know why the OP waited almost a 5 weeks to post it, but he points to an “around Christmas” period for the email.
Since Christmas, the Twin Span bridges on I-10 that cross the NE end of Lake Pontchartrain are now both open, so traffic going E/W is not confined to one lane only. There may be some traffic, but not the backups that existed during construction.
Had that still been the case, I would not have suggested Slidell.
(AP) Gov. Kathleen Blanco joined federal officials Thursday to celebrate the reopening of a major bridge over Lake Pontchartrain that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
“It’s still hard to believe that less than five months ago, this bridge was practically in ruins,” Blanco said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Interstate 10 bridge, which links New Orleans and Slidell, La.
Katrina’s storm surge ripped giant sections of the 5-mile concrete twin-span bridge and tossed some into the lake. Other sections shifted by as much as five feet. Crews cannibalized undamaged spans from the westbound span to patch the eastbound lanes, which were converted temporarily to two-way traffic. That left about a mile of the westbound roadway missing.
When the bridge reopens to traffic early Friday, drivers will notice a system of metal trusses and decking in place of the missing concrete sections.
“A lot of people wrote this bridge off. They said it wasn’t worth fixing,” state Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry said. “We finished the job ahead of schedule.”
The state owes some of its success to help from Florida transportation officials, Bradberry said. They used similar methods to hasten the reopening of an interstate bridge damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
The governor also announced that the federal government will put about $600 million toward a six-lane bridge expected to replace the 43-year-old span in about three years.
My guess is that they are going to be creative. It will be a very memorable Mardi Gras.