NEW ORLEANS – Due to ongoing construction of the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with its partners at the City of New Orleans and the Orleans Levee District will close several stretches of road near the lakefront between London Avenue and the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC):
· Franklin Avenue at Lakeshore Drive will be closed beginning Jan. 12 and will remain closed until August 2010;
· Lakeshore Drive at Camp Leroy Johnson, beginning Jan. 14 and closed until September 2010;
· East and West Lakeshore Drive at Elysian Fields, beginning Jan. 18 and closed until July 2010.
These road closures (illustrated on the below map) are necessary to ensure public safety during construction and to meet our operational goal for the 2011 hurricane season.
Work between London Avenue and the IHNC includes raising ramps and constructing floodwalls, as well as removing and replacing existing gates. When complete, the project would reduce the impacts from a storm surge event that has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year.
Map of the street closures can be viewed at www.mvn.usace.army.mil\news\streetclosure.jpg
Release no. 10-122