MAYOR CANTRELL, STATE AND LOCAL LEADERS CELEBRATE
MARCONI DRIVE ROADWORK COMPLETION
NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell today joined state and local officials and partners to celebrate the completion of the nearly $3 million roadwork improvements on Marconi Drive along City Park and Orleans Avenue along and near Delgado Community College. This federally funded project, administered through the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and managed by the Department of Public Works, included repaved roads, rehabilitated sidewalks, new bus islands, and protected bike lanes on both streets — a two-way bikeway on Marconi and a one-way bikeway on Delgado.
"This did not happen without a real partnership that we have been able to demonstrate with the federal government, the State of Louisiana with the Department of Transportation and Development, City Park, Delgado, the Regional Planning Commission, and the Department of Public Works. This is a great time," said Mayor Cantrell. "It's setting the tone about what we are about holistically in the City of New Orleans when it comes to moving infrastructure forward and taking on the challenges of infrastructure as well as the maintenance that's tied to it. The bar is higher because we've set it higher, and we're reaching it."
The project's completion comes at a time when concern for safety of motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians runs extremely high. Data from 2018 reveal the following:
Total Traffic Fatalities: 41
(18 of those were people walking; 0 of them were people bicycling)
There were 269 serious injuries
(50 of them were people walking; 21 of them were people bicycling)
"This is a great day for the City of New Orleans and for the State of Louisiana. From new sidewalks to a new, beautiful two-way protected bike lane on the Marconi side and one-way protected bike lane on the Orleans side to the newly repaved roadway, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists alike are now benefiting from a safer street and an overall improved quality of life," said Ramsey Green, Deputy CAO for Infrastructure. "We knew that this was a big rehabilitation project. And considering the many events at City Park, the students at Delgado and the thousands of commuters who use Marconi and Orleans daily, the project needed to be completed quickly and safely. There were seven crews and 90 people working on this project at the peak of construction."
The improvements were completed on time on a tight 40-day timeline by Hard Rock Construction, with temporary stoppages to accommodate special events in City Park that included high school football doubleheaders in Tad Gormley Stadium and the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience. More specifically, the project's scope of work included:
- Repairing some damaged sidewalks and driveway aprons;
- Repaving the roadway with asphalt and/or concrete;
- Installing Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant curb ramps at intersections and new high-visibility crosswalks;
- Installing a new two-way protected bike lane on Marconi Drive alongside City Park;
- Installing a new river-bound protected bike lane on Orleans Avenue alongside Delgado Community College;
- Reconfiguring the roadway on Marconi Drive from two travel lanes and one parking lane to: one travel lane, one parking lane and one two-way protected bike lane; a left turning lane and one travel at Navarre Avenue;
- Reconfiguring the roadway on Orleans Avenue from two travel lanes and one parking lane to: one travel lane, one parking lane and one protected bike lane (at Orleans and City Park Avenue, both lanes and the right turning lane will remain in place); and
- Constructing a new ADA-compliant bus loading island on Marconi Drive and Orleans Avenue.
Click here to view conceptual renderings of the new lane configuration.
Mayor Cantrell was joined by Ramsey Green, Deputy CAO/Infrastructure; Dr. Shawn Wilson, Secretary, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development; Mark Raymond, board member, New Orleans Regional Transit Authority; Larissa Littleton-Steib, Chancellor, Delgado Community College; Bob Becker, CEO, City Park; Rica Trigs, Community Advocacy Director, American Heart Association/Complete Streets Coalition; and project contractors Hard Rock Construction and designer HNTB.
The project's completion also highlights massive infrastructure work across New Orleans. Right now, the City has 27 public works projects under construction citywide valued at more than $132 million dollars, and another $112 million worth of public works projects that will be moving through procurement in the next several months. The City is also mixing green infrastructure and grey infrastructure and using the best science and expertise to build projects that hold water and relieve pressure on our drainage system. Not too far from the Marconi project, the $7 million dollar Hagan Lafitte project is well under way that will hold 1.2 million gallons of water, and earlier this year the City received FEMA approval on the City Park Storm Water Improvements that will store up to 49 million gallons of storm water.
For more information on the City’s infrastructure projects, please visit www.roadwork.nola.gov or call 504.658.ROAD (7623).
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