Ride the Route: WWL-TV clock 18 hazards along carnival parade routes
But when the tractors start rolling down the Avenue, one of the city’s biggest economic drivers will like have to steer clear of some bumps in the road.
Let the good times roll and let the floats roll smoothly!
Your ‘pothole patrol’ team of Devin Bartolotta and Photographer Whitney Hill is back for a second year to ride the routes and see if New Orleans streets are ready for carnival parades -- and now their extended routes.
Endymion Route
We started in Mid City, where the Krewe of Endymion will roll on Saturday night. Everything looked good down Orleans Avenue and Carrollton, until we reached South Scott Street and Canal.
The street is town up on both sides of Canal. Roadwork NOLA information said that project wouldn’t be finished until at least April, but the city told Eyewitness News that roadway restoration is expected to be done ahead of Endymion.
Just a handful of blocks down, at Norman C. Francis Parkway and Canal, there is a huge pothole-like bump in the middle lane. The Department of Public Works says they are “coordinating a plan to address the pothole on the inside lanes” and “expect remediation of the issue before Mardi Gras Day.”
Our next buzzer-buster came Canal and St. Charles, where the sidewalk is closed for construction. Down on Tchoupitoulas and Poydras, another construction project has scaffolding, pallets, trash, and other construction equipment blocking the sidewalk.
DPW says these are private construction, which are unrelated to the city’s infrastructure. However, there is a moratorium in placed for private construction “on and adjacent to parade routes” and DPW was working with those permit holders to secure the sites.
St. Charles Route
Next, we headed Uptown. We began on the Thoth route, which is extended this year and begins near Children’s Hospital. We buzzed our fifth problem – a huge bump launching south-bound traffic at Henry Clay and Constance.
At Constance and Napoleon, where Bacchus will begin, there is a sign post that has somehow become horizontal, but is still stuck in the ground.
And with that, we were onto the main St. Charles Avenue route.
Right away, we spotted wires sticking up out of a streetlight base on the neutral ground at Milan. DPW says this was the result of a car crash. But a few feet away, there’s also a cone bolted into another streetlight base, which appears slightly safer than the wires.
Next, at Foucher and St. Charles, there is a huge lump of dirt in the middle of the Foucher crosswalk with an orange barrel on it.
Further down St. Charles, at First Street, there is a torn up sidewalk. And there’s another torn up sidewalk at St. Charles and St. Andrew, plus a pile of construction barriers around a tree at the intersection.
So far, that’s eleven issues on the route.
A few blocks down, near Avenue Pub at Polymnia Street, we found a construction cone and electrical box that looks worse than when we first noticed it last year.
And on the next block, at Euterpe, we found a cone stuck into a deep pothole in a crosswalk, and actually watched a car run it over.
There is a good update at this intersection! Last year, Burger King between Polymnia and Euterpe was being held up by stilts and was secured with a chain link fence. This year, it’s remodeled, fully functioning, and looking much better.
And most of the problems we’ve found along the route have been new problems. All but one of the problems we found last year have been fixed.
Zulu's Route
But we weren’t done with our journey. At the beginning of the Zulu route, at Jackson Avenue and Clara Street, we found barriers and cones in the street, but with no visible cause or construction.
Fast forward to the end of the Zulu route, things get messy. We found wires sticking loose out of the ground at Orleans Avenue and Derbigny Street. A few blocks up, we found sidewalks ripped up at Orleans Avenue and Prieur.
And when we got to Orleans Avenue and Rocheblave, we found a huge mess. Just two blocks from the end of the Zulu route, the neighborhood is torn up – and according to Roadwork NOLA records, has been for years.
There is a gigantic hole with an exposed pipe, full of trash and debris. DPW said this project scheduled to be complete by Fall 2023, which according to records would be an extended deadline.
DPW wrote in a statement about this project, “Crews are currently actively working on this project, but there were complications at Orleans and North Rocheblave due to a damaged drainage box. The Department of Public, Sewerage and Water Board and the contractor are finalizing a path forward, and RoadworkNOLA remains committed to keeping residents informed once the work resumes. The area will be secured ahead of Mardi Gras. While a path forward is determined, the contractor is continuing work on other blocks in the project area.”
The project also continues to North Dorgenois one block up.
If you’re keeping count, that was 18 buzzers - 18 potential hazards or potential lawsuits – as thousands flock to the sidewalk side or neutral ground side.
DPW said that most of these hazards were already on their list of repairs before carnival parades roll. They wrote in a statement,
“The Department of Public Works has prioritized Carnival parade route safety by directing all City contractors to complete and/or properly secure any active construction or repairs.
But when the tractors start rolling down the Avenue, one of the city’s biggest economic drivers will like have to steer clear of some bumps in the road.
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