I-10 Twin Spans into NOLA to reopen Friday!

[dhweather]

This is an incredible feat, considering the major damage done to the
I-10 bridges - the "twinspans". The westbound lanes will be the
temporary type, much like I-10 in Pensacola.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development will reopen
the two westbound lanes of the I-10 "twin spans" on Friday, 6 January
2006. Both lanes of the bridge will be open to normal traffic soon
after the 10 a.m. ceremony.

[HURAKAN]

Good to hear!

[JonathanBelles]

wow already do u have any pic before and after?

[Jam151]

When are the permanent bridges going to be in place in Pensacola?

[HurryKane]

Times-Pic article on the reopening: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/ ... 481440.xml

wow already do u have any pic before and after?

There are probably some pictures somewhere on http://www.nola.com

I don't have any recent pictures, but here are some of the damage and the beginning of the rebuilding. These were taken Oct 1-Oct 3 (story of how/when/why they were taken is here--there are more pictures of Slidell and flooded New Orleans East and it involves myself (as The Webbeotch) and dhweather and a couple of other dummies: http://www.2daves.org/sd ). I assure you these pictures are safe in regards to the latest Windows security flaw.

[cjrciadt]

Thanks for the pics!

[Ivanhater]

When are the permanent bridges going to be in place in Pensacola?

i believe August 2007, more info here

http://www.escambiabaybridge.com/

i believe the new price tag is close to 300million dollars due to Katrina

[Astro_man92]

Are those cars still on the bridge???

[Ivanhater]

Are those cars still on the bridge???

those are work crews

[mike815]

wow that awesome there really doing a great job on repares on that bridge cant wait for it to be reopened.

[O Town]

That is awesome! I was just curious, do they recover all the missing sections of the road out of the water? I am sure they do not reuse them, they bring in new or pour them on site, but as far as just cleaning the debris from the water. Seems like they would have to before they could put in new pilings. That is alot of work to have to redo those bridges, and it looks like they are doing a great job.

[wxman57]

We drove from MS to New Orleans last week. I snapped a few pics of the twin span along the way. The southern span wasn't damaged, and it's being used one lane each way. The northern span had steel all along the way, but the concrete hadn't been poured yet as of the 29th of December, as you can see below:

[mike815]

wow thanks for the pic it sure looks better.

[HoumaLa]

I would like to know why an 18 wheeler was on that bridge. An did he survive

[HurryKane]

We drove from MS to New Orleans last week. I snapped a few pics of the twin span along the way. The southern span wasn't damaged, and it's being used one lane each way. The northern span had steel all along the way, but the concrete hadn't been poured yet as of the 29th of December, as you can see below:

Both sides of the twin-span were damaged initially. They cannibalized the northern (westbound) span to complete the southern (eastbound) span and use it as a two-way bridge until they put in the slightly permanent metal sections on the northern/westbound span seen in your picture. It took over a month for them to piece together the southern/eastbound span again so it could be used for two-way driving. During that time we had to use two-lane Hwy 11 to get across the Pontchartrain and that was a huge mess, because the light at the first intersection 'north' of the lake in Slidell still didn't have power and became an ugly, superslow 3-way stop from hell.

Those metal sections (totalling 8/10 of a mile) will not be refitted with concrete--they will just be maintained by the company that put them there--because they will be building a new, six-lane bridge with a much higher 'hump' near the current twin-span.

I for one can't wait until they open the other half. During peak traffic (and sometimes not), traffic would stop up to 3 miles before the bridge either in Slidell or NOLA East. One day I got stuck on there for 20+ minutes and a large number of us did a U-ey on the bridge and backtracked to go via Hwy 11.

[wxman57]

I would like to know why an 18 wheeler was on that bridge. An did he survive

I assume you mean the I-10 bridge over Escambia Bay with Ivan. The photograph was taken as the Coast Guard was searching for the driver's body.

[Ivanhater]

I would like to know why an 18 wheeler was on that bridge. An did he survive

no, he died

[skysummit]

Both sides of the Twin Span has opened just as planned. They are now planning the larger 3 lanes in each direction bridge. It will be 15 feet higher than the current twin spans. I'm not sure when construction will begin though.