Several Major Louisiana Roadways Shut from Isaac Flooding

Several major traffic arteries around near New Orleans are closed because of lingering floods from Hurricane Isaac, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Interstate 55 is closed in both directions from Interstate 10 in LaPlace to U.S. Highway 51 in Ponchatoula, AP said, citing the Louisiana State Police.

Interstate 10 is closed in several spots, including in both directions in the LaPlace area. Exit ramps at one Slidell stop were closed Thursday, AP reported.

The 24-mile long Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which closed Tuesday night, remained closed Thursday morning and officials planned to inspect it to see if it can be reopened Thursday, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported on its website.

Isaac made landfall Tuesday night south of New Orleans as a hurricane, and as of Thursday morning the slow-moving system had been downgraded to a tropical storm and was moving northward through central Louisiana after dumping nearly a foot of rain across southeastern Louisiana and parts of neighboring Mississippi.

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Construction Closes Several Lanes of Traffic on Bridge Linking Indiana and Louisville, Ky.

By Kari Travis, Special to Transport Topics

This story appears in the July 2 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Construction on the Interstate 65 John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge connecting southern Indiana and Louisville, Ky., has shut down several traffic lanes in each direction.

The Ohio River crossing supports nearly 136,000 vehicles per day, with an estimated 17,500 of them commercial trucks. The bridge, which has four northbound lanes but only three southbound lanes, will be reduced to two lanes in both directions through at least the end of July, said Andrea Clifford, a spokeswoman with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

Repairs to the bridge will include a new deck surface, expansion joint replacements, concrete patches and waterproof asphalt driving surface.

“For many months, we have fielded complaints about the rough, pitted surface of the Kennedy Bridge,” Matt Bullock, the engineer assigned to the project, said in a statement. “These repairs were originally scheduled for this past spring, but the emergency closure of the I-64 Sherman Minton Bridge forced us to reschedule.”

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