[StBernard] St. Claude Bridge Closure Memorial Weekend

[Westley Annis]

St. Claude Bridge Closure Memorial Weekend
St. Claude Avenue Bridge to Undergo Repairs

The St. Claude Avenue Bridge over the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal
(Industrial Canal) in New Orleans will be closed to marine traffic for 36
consecutive hours between 6 a.m. on Saturday, May 23, 2009 and 11:59 p.m. on
Sunday, May 24, 2009.  In the event of inclement weather or any condition
that causes rescheduling, the alternate dates will be the following weekend
starting Saturday May 30 and ending Sunday, May 31, same hours as planned
for the Memorial Day weekend. 

The closure will allow work crews to replace the mechanical strut on the
side of the bridge closest to the lock. This strut controls the raising and
lowering of the bridge and routine engineering inspection recommended
replacement. 

In addition to the marine closure, one lane of the westbound vehicular
traffic will closed during the scheduled outage. Both westbound vehicular
lanes and the pedestrian sidewalk will be closed for up to one hour
periodically in order to facilitate the repair work. Alternate routes are
the Florida Avenue Bridge or the Judge Seeber (Claiborne Avenue) Bridge when
the bridge is closed totally to westbound vehicular traffic.  During the
repair work there will be an electronic message board at            Street
advising the public when the one hour total westbound closures are expected
to begin and end so that traffic can detour to another bridge.

The Port of New Orleans, which owns and operates the bridge, recently
repaired the steel grating on the roadways and that work has been completed.