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ROAD WORK NOLA

November 9, 2016 by Charlie London

capitalimprovementproject2017

Click on the map for a larger view

After a long dry spell it finally rained on Monday, November 7, 2016. Many streets were flooded but several representatives of neighborhoods in New Orleans’ Council District A attended a meeting at 6 p.m. at Esperanza Charter School at 4407 South Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans. The meeting was held in a temporary building that is currently used as a music room.

In the link below is a PDF of the presentation. Faubourg St. John will receive $9 million in infrastructure improvements. The work will begin during February, 2017 and continue for many years.
dpw-swb_joint_capital_improvement_program_districta_final

Beginning in February, 2017, one new construction project will begin each week in New Orleans through 2020. $5 billion is required to fix all the streets. $2.4 billion has been obtained through FEMA and other funding sources. Type your address in the search bar after clicking on the link below to find out what will be happening on your street.

http://roadwork.nola.gov/

Filed Under: Featured, HISTORY Tagged With: bayou st john, construction, faubourg st john, fix my streets, infrastructure, New Orleans, road work, road work nola, street repair

Moss Street to Receive Two New Fire Hydrants

July 1, 2016 by Charlie London

Moss Street to Receive Two New Fire Hydrants

Improving Your Water System on Moss Street

dumaine-fire-hydrant1-2016july1Wallace C. Drennan, Inc., working for the Sewerage and Water Board, will be replacing hydrants that service the area. Residents and businesses on Moss Street between St. Philip Street to Dumaine Street will experience low water pressure on Tuesday, July 5, 2016 from 9 a.m. until noon while two new fire hydrants are installed.

The Sewerage and Water Board appreciates your patience as they work to improve the City’s infrastructure.

Please note that all scheduled work may change due to unforeseen circumstances such as weather delays.

StPhilip-fire-hydrant1-2016july1

In areas subject to freezing temperatures, only a portion of the hydrant is above ground. The valve is located below the frost line and connected by a riser to the above-ground portion. A valve rod extends from the valve up through a seal at the top of the hydrant, where it can be operated with the proper wrench. This design is known as a “dry barrel” hydrant, in that the barrel, or vertical body of the hydrant, is normally dry. A drain valve underground opens when the water valve is completely closed; this allows all water to drain from the hydrant body to prevent the hydrant from freezing.

In warm areas, hydrants are used with one or more valves in the above-ground portion. Unlike with cold-weather hydrants, it is possible to turn the water supply on and off to each port. This style is known as a “wet barrel” hydrant.

Both wet- and dry-barrel hydrants typically have multiple outlets. Wet barrel hydrant outlets are typically individually controlled, while a single stem operates all the outlets of a dry barrel hydrant simultaneously. Thus, wet barrel hydrants allow single outlets to be opened, requiring somewhat more effort, but simultaneously allowing more flexibility.

A typical U.S. dry-barrel hydrant has two smaller outlets and one larger outlet. The smaller outlet is often a Storz connection if the local fire department has standardized on hose using Storz fittings for large diameter supply line. The larger outlet is known as a “steamer” connection, because they were once used to supply steam powered water pumps, and a hydrant with such an outlet may be called a “steamer hydrant”, although this usage is becoming archaic. Likewise, an older hydrant without a steamer connection may be called a “village hydrant.”

description courtesy Wikipedia

Filed Under: Featured, HISTORY Tagged With: bayou st john, best neighborhood in New Orleans, construction, dumaine street, faubourg st john, fire, fire hydrant, infrastructure, moss street, New Orleans, new orleans best neighborhood, repairs, st. philip

Wisner Bridge to be Replaced

June 19, 2015 by Charlie London

Click on the map for a PDF of all of the drawings.
Click on the map for a PDF of all of the drawings.
Faubourg St. John neighbor Chip Eyman writes, “I thought you might want to share one or more of these drawings of the replacement Wisner overpass. (click on the map to the left) You can see that there will be a 12′ wide pedestrian/bicycle path separated from traffic on the East side of the bridge.

Boh Bros is in final negotiations with the city now. The project is supposed to start soon and will take 14 or 15 months to complete, probably ending towards the end of 2016.

It’ll be a major pain while its being done, but I look forward to a new bridge.”

***

WWL-TV did a report on the Wisner Bridge on May 5, 2015:

Wisner Bridge photo by Bill Capo.
Wisner Bridge photo by Bill Capo.
“City officials say authorities will spend more than $14 million demolishing the old bridge and building a new one. Contractors will be selected this month. Then construction is scheduled to start in September and wrap up about a year later.”

Video and more in the link below:
http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/local/orleans/2015/05/05/wisner-overpass-bicycle-lanes-jogging-lane-city-park-councilman-jared-brossett/26939521/

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: bayou st john, faubourg st john, infrastructure, New Orleans, project, road, wisner bridge

The Great Works of David Waggonner

February 10, 2014 by Charlie London

Next City
J. David Waggonner III, FAIA

David Waggonner was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971 and Yale University with a Master of Architecture in 1975. Employed previously by the Architect of the Capitol, Bechtel Corporation, and DMJM/Curtis and Davis, he has been principal in the present firm and its predecessor since 1981. He has taught Architectural design at Tulane University and the University of Oregon, is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and is a member of the Association for Preservation Technology and the Society of Architectural Historians.

In Forefront this week, Sarah Goodyear asks whether rain gardens, detention ponds, bioswales, porous pavement and the like represents the way forward for a perennially cash-strapped and tradition-bound New Orleans.

David Waggoner is a slight man, with a soft voice and self-effacing demeanor. Thanks to his involvement with the Dutch Dialogues and the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, though, his influence in the way the city thinks about reconfiguring the post-Katrina landscape is profound. His firm, Waggonner & Ball Architects, is also deeply involved with another coastal reconstruction project, the post-Sandy Rebuild by Design competition in the New York-New Jersey area.

Waggonner, 63, comes from Louisiana political royalty. His father, Joe, was a congressman from Bossier Parish, just up the river from New Orleans, for 18 years. The younger Waggonner, who trained as an architect at Yale, has spoken admiringly of his father. But his own worldview is one that looks away from typical political solutions, and he talks about the challenges facing New Orleans in a way that explicitly rejects conventional forms of power.

“The issues that politicians talk about, those aren’t the real issues of the voter,” Waggonner says. “Politics — that’s when I despair, because politics should support the best, but politics plays of what’s divisive.”

As an architect, Waggonner has built projects all over the world. But ask him nuts-and-bolts questions — about, say, garnering public support for the water plan, or the feasibility of reversing generations of poor engineering decisions, or the decades of corruption both perceived and proven in New Orleans — and the conversation quickly becomes abstract. This isn’t an attempt to evade such questions. It’s simply his characteristic way of thinking about and tackling the underlying problems.

“The discussion is at once practical and esoteric, and it needs to be,” Waggonner says. “The real questions that leaders need to be solving are much deeper than the daily chatter. How do we become relevant to our own time? Our inability to grasp where we are in history, our inability to grasp our mythic place and the forces impinging on ourselves, leads to catastrophe.”

The only way to mitigate that catastrophe, in Waggonner’s estimation, is to fundamentally shift the way we manage the intersection of the built environment and the natural environment. And New Orleans, he says, is the perfect place to do it. “This is a vital river delta,” he says. “Are we going to give up on it?”

The plan’s architects imagine a New Orleans that not only deals with its own water problems gracefully and efficiently, but also serves as a model for other cities around the world. If the plan is executed as outlined, New Orleans will be able to serve as a sort of laboratory from all the most up-to-date thinking and design in stormwater management. These days, cities like Seattle and Philadelphia are on the cutting edge of green infrastructure treatment of water in the U.S. Plan backers in New Orleans want to put their city at the head of the class.

To that end, the water plan includes a number of demonstration projects that put “living with water” principles into action on a neighborhood scale. One of these is the Lakeview Floating Streets project, which calls for rebuilding buckling streets in a few square blocks near Lake Pontchartrain; paving them with pervious pavement; planting bioswales that will allow stormwater to percolate slowly into the underlying soil; bundling and burying utility lines; planting trees; and reconfiguring the street to allow for different modes of travel, including biking and walking. In significant downpours, this configuration would enable a “slow, store and drain” effect that would prevent the water from overwhelming the roadway or threatening homes.

Another, more high-profile demonstration project on the table is the “Lafitte Blueway,” a complete redevelopment of a strip of abandoned, derelict land connecting Lake Pontchartrain with the French Quarter. Where there are now fenced-off, abandoned industrial wastelands, the project envisions a linear park that focuses on an excavated waterway, complete with kayak launches, bike paths, playgrounds, community gardens and other amenities.

The benefits of the Blueway, according to planners, would not simply be environmental, but also economic. They envision it as creating a redevelopment corridor not unlike the one around New York’s High Line, or the area along the Chicago River. This economic angle is important because, again, none of this will come for free. Implementation of the plan as outlined would cost $6.2 billion, and while its backers say that financing options have been identified, the dollars have not yet been secured. Will it happen? “That’s the $6.2 billion question,” says Morris of the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

Article courtesy NEXT CITY —> http://nextcity.org/infrastructure/entry/forefront-excerpt-the-recovery-that-wasnt

 

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: bayou st john, blue way, david waggonner, dutch dialgues, faubourg st john, flooding, forefront, greater new orleans urban water plan, green infrastructure, green way, hurricane katrina, infrastructure, lafitte, New Orleans, stormwater management

City Takes Action

June 5, 2012 by Charlie London


Thanks to neighbors for their requests for action!


And thanks to City officials who took action after the situation was posted here:
https://fsjna.org/2012/05/up-comes-a-bubbling-crude/

Thanks to neighbors for their requests for action!


And thanks to City officials who took action after the situation was posted here:
https://fsjna.org/2012/06/rotten-pole-languishes/

Filed Under: More Great Posts! Tagged With: att, bayou, bayou st john, city, city of new orleans, faubourg, faubourg st john, infrastructure, New Orleans, s&wb, sewer, sewerage and water board, water

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