NEW ORLEANS — Ask anyone who has ever been behind the wheel in New Orleans and they will tell you -- it can be rough.
“Driving around New Orleans, you always gotta be cautious,” driver Wayne Stewart said. “At any given second, you could hit a pothole. It could be one foot deep or ten feet deep.”
“A lot of the roads are really bad,” said another driver, Gabby Glazer. “My car is pretty old and low to the ground. I am always worried I am going to pop a tire."
While so many streets are a mess, work is underway to add improvements. Uptown along Upperline is just one example of a newly paved street in New Orleans. It’s part of 140 blocks Uptown where work has either been finished, is underway or scheduled to start soon.
Across the city, there are 80 projects in construction paid for with FEMA dollars from the joint infrastructure program. It’s a big difference from years past, according to acting director of the Department of Public Works, Josh Hartley.
“Even when I became part of DPW 10 years ago, it was just two, three, four projects on one road at a time. These projects are multiple roads in every single neighborhood,” Hartley said.
And Hartley says more FEMA money is coming.
“We are anticipating another $1 billion in construction coming for the next year so we are very excited,” Hartley said. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity at this moment.”
People we met say the improvements are welcome news, but in a city with so many other issues, they understand why it hasn’t always been on the top of the priority list.
“It would be great if they were able to fix all of the potholes, but obviously this city has it’s fair share of problems so I understand,” Glazer said.
Since 2018, the Department of Public Works has completed 98 projects with an estimated value of $271 million.