NEW ORLEANS – As part of ongoing construction of the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Team New Orleans, with its partners at the St. Bernard Parish Government, the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, will shift traffic on Highway 46 on Wednesday, May 11, near Fire Station 10 in Verret, back to its normal pattern.
Construction in the area began last summer on 30-foot-high vehicle floodgates that will reduce the risk of a storm surge event that has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year, or a 100-year storm surge event. Just last month, the Corps and its contractor, Integrated Pro Services, L.L.C., installed the floodgates at both the north and southbound lanes.
The Corps shifted lanes in three different phases so that crews could safely construct the gates, the frames and the floodwalls that tie into the gates. From July to August 2010, north and southbound traffic had been limited to the outside lanes while crews constructed temporary crossovers just north and south of the floodgates. From August 2010 to January 2011, the southbound lanes were closed, and north and southbound traffic was limited to one lane each on the northbound side. Since January 2011, the northbound lanes have been closed so that north and southbound traffic has been limited to one lane each on the southbound side.
“The reopening of the southbound lanes on Highway 46 marks a major milestone in the construction of the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System,” said Chris Gilmore, senior project manager for St. Bernard Parish risk reduction projects. “There are three projects in St. Bernard Parish that still need to be completed, but all will be complete by June 1 of this year.”
Release no. 11-071