Overview | |
---|---|
Location | Gulf Intracoastal Waterway between Belle Chasse and Terrytown, Louisiana |
Coordinates | 29°52′18.7″N90°0′32.0″W / 29.871861°N 90.008889°W |
Route | LA 23 south |
Operation | |
Opened | February 15, 1956 |
Closed | December 20, 2023 |
Operator | LaDOTD |
Technical | |
Length | 1,938 feet (591 m) |
No. of lanes | 2 |
Tunnel clearance | 13.58 feet (4.14 m) |
The Belle Chasse Tunnel was built starting in March 1954 to accommodate the new branch of the Intracoastal Canal. After nearly two years of construction, the $2,436,000 structure opened in February 1956 with the Canal beginning operations later that year. The politicians in Plaquemines Parish chose to construct a tunnel as opposed to a drawbridge as to enable continuous flow of traffic. According to engineers and various 1956 issues of the Plaquemines Gazette, the tunnel was the first fully automatic underwater tunnel in the world as it did not require any operating personnel. The tunnel had ventilation machinery that automatically change the tunnel's air every two minutes with automatic generators taking over if the machinery fails.
Judge Leander Perez enabled the tunnel's construction by passing a constitutional amendment through the Plaquemines Parish Police Jury. He sold bonds towards construction with the US Corps of Engineers paying the remainder of the construction fees. When the tunnel opened, it was the first underwater tunnel in Louisiana. [1] [2] Shortly after, two new tunnels were built in the state: the Harvey Tunnel which once carried traffic from the Westbank Expressway and the Houma Tunnel.
The tunnel was the primary means of carrying traffic to and from Belle Chasse and westbank Plaquemines Parish. Since its opening, hazardous cargo is prohibited from travelling through the tunnel, and numerous additional regulations/restrictions have been enforced. Traffic counts soon overwhelmed the tunnel, and in 1967, construction of the Judge Perez Bridge, a vertical-lift bridge, commenced, and that structure opened in 1968 to serve northbound traffic and, whenever the tunnel is closed for maintenance, southbound traffic.
The tunnel was heavily used by commuters to and from New Orleans and surrounding areas. It sported a solid white line that prohibits passing inside the structure. It also experienced flooding problems fairly often and was one of many structures closed after Hurricane Katrina.
The tunnel was permanently closed on December 20, 2023 as traffic was rerouted on the newly constructed Belle Chasse Bridge. [3]
Plaquemines Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 23,515 at the 2020 census, the parish seat is Pointe à la Hache and the largest community is Belle Chasse. The parish was formed in 1807.
Terrytown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is on the "Westbank" of the Mississippi River. It is a suburb within the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner metropolitan statistical area. The population was 23,319 at the 2010 census, and 25,278 in 2020.
Woodmere is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,080 at the 2010 census, and 11,238 at the 2020 census. It is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner metropolitan statistical area.
A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube construction techniques rather than traditional tunnel boring methods.
Leander Henry Perez Sr. was an American Democratic Party political boss of Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes in southeastern Louisiana during the middle third of the 20th century. Officially, he served as a district judge, later as district attorney, and as president of the Plaquemines Parish Commission Council. He was known for leading efforts to enforce and preserve segregation.
Though Hurricane Katrina did not deal the city of New Orleans a direct hit on August 29, 2005, the associated storm surge precipitated catastrophic failures of the levees and flood walls. The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet ("MR-GO") breached its levees in approximately 15 places. The major levee breaches in the city include the 17th Street Canal levee, the London Avenue Canal, and the wide, navigable Industrial Canal, which left approximately 80% of the city flooded.
U.S. Highway 90 Business is a business route of U.S. Highway 90 located in and near New Orleans, Louisiana. It runs 14.25 miles (22.93 km) in a general east–west direction from US 90 in Avondale to a junction with Interstate 10 (I-10) and US 90 in the New Orleans Central Business District.
Louisiana Highway 23 is a north–south state highway in Louisiana that serves Plaquemines and Jefferson Parishes. It spans 74.0 miles (119.1 km) in roughly a southeast to northwest direction. It is known locally as Belle Chasse Highway, Lafayette Street, the West Bank Expressway, and Franklin Avenue.
U.S. Highway 90 (US 90), one of the major east–west U.S. Highways in the Southern United States, runs through southern Louisiana for 297.6 miles (478.9 km), serving Lake Charles, Lafayette, New Iberia, Morgan City, and New Orleans. Much of it west of Lafayette and east of New Orleans has been supplanted by Interstate 10 (I-10) for all but local traffic, but the section between Lafayette and New Orleans runs a good deal south of I-10.
The Belle Chasse–Scarsdale Ferry is a ferry across the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana, connecting Belle Chasse and Scarsdale and is maintained by Plaquemines Parish. It carries a $1 toll for 2-axle vehicles, $2 for vehicles with at least 3 axles, and $.50 for motorcycles. The eastbank ferry leaves every 15 and 45 minutes on the hour between 5:15 AM and 10:15 PM; the westbank ferry leaves on the top and bottom of every hour between 5:00 AM and 10:00 PM.
The Pointe à la Hache Ferry or Pointe a la Hache Ferry, is a ferry across the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana, connecting West Pointe à la Hache and Pointe à la Hache in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Currently, it is $1 for single or double axle vehicles, three or more axles are $2. It is the last vehicle crossing of the river in the down river direction. The East Bank side of the ferry is near the end of paved roadway; on the West Bank the river road continues down to Venice, Louisiana. As the eastbank of Plaquemines Parish has little population in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, ferry service to the eastbank occurs at the top of every hour between 6 AM and 10 PM, as well as at 6:30 AM. Likewise, ferry service to the westbank occurs at 6:15 AM, 6:45 AM, and on the bottom of every hour between 7:30 AM and 10:30 PM.
The Judge Perez Bridge, also known as the Belle Chasse Bridge, is a vertical-lift bridge in the U.S. state of Louisiana which carries northbound Louisiana Highway 23 over the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway between Belle Chasse and Terrytown. The bridge is paired with the Belle Chasse Tunnel which carries southbound LA 23. Construction began in March 1967, and the bridge opened for traffic in September 1968. It has been plagued with mechanical issues since it opened. Commuters have had to back down off the bridge due to a malfunction.
Plaquemine Lock State Historic Site, located in Plaquemine, Louisiana, commemorates an early example of hydraulic engineering design and the historic significance of Bayou Plaquemine, an important navigable waterway that was once a distributary of the Mississippi River. Bayou Plaquemine promoted settlement beginning in the 18th century and helped the area economically by providing an access route between southwestern Louisiana and the Mississippi via the Atchafalaya Basin.
The West Jefferson Medical Center is a 419-bed community hospital located in Marrero, Louisiana, United States. It is located 15 minutes from Downtown New Orleans in a region known as the Westbank. Established in 1956, West Jefferson Medical Center is situated near vast industrial and maritime corridors and offers a full set of medical services in the Westbank region of Jefferson, Plaquemines, and St. Charles Parishes. The hospital is a part of the LCMC Health System.
The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway West Closure Complex is a part of the New Orleans Drainage System; it consists of a navigable floodgate, a pumping station, flood walls, sluice gates, foreshore protection, and an earthen levee. The complex was designed to reduce risk for residences and businesses in the project area from a storm surge associated with a tropical event, with an intensity that has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year. This project was operated for the first time on August 29, 2012, in response to Hurricane Isaac.
Louisiana Highway 3082 was a state highway in Louisiana that served Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes. It spanned 6.2 miles (10.0 km) in a west–east direction along the present route of LA 39 between New Orleans and Chalmette. It was essentially a temporary designation for the relocation of LA 39 north (west) of LA 47.
Irene W. Griffin was an African-American activist, and the first black woman to register to vote in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. She was married to Rev. Percy Murphy Griffin, also a civil rights activist in that community.