Fort Pike Bridge | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 30°10′21.8″N89°43′56.9″W / 30.172722°N 89.732472°W |
Carries | 2 lanes of US 90 |
Crosses | Rigolets |
Locale | New Orleans and Slidell (Louisiana) |
Other name(s) | Rigolets Bridge |
Characteristics | |
Design | Through truss swing bridge (old), box girder bridge (new) |
Total length | 3,877.9 feet (1,182 m) |
Width | 20 feet (6 m) (old), 40 feet (12 m) |
Longest span | 399.8 feet (122 m) |
Clearance below | 14.9 feet (5 m)(old), 72 feet (22 m) (new) |
History | |
Opened | June 9, 1930 (old) January 15, 2008 (new) |
Location | |
The Fort Pike Bridge (also known as the Rigolets Bridge), named after nearby Fort Pike, carries U.S. Route 90 across the Rigolets on the eastern side of Lake Pontchartrain between New Orleans and Slidell in Louisiana. It is owned and operated by Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development [1] The bridge opened on June 9, 1930, and along with the Chef Menteur Bridge provided a free route between New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This was the site of Jayne Mansfield's death in June 1967. [2] A new span was constructed just to the north of the old span.
Construction of a new $50 million high-rise bridge began in October 2004. The new bridge was built by Massman Construction Co., of Kansas City, MO. [3] It was delayed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which pushed a devastating storm surge through the area. The new bridge is just over one mile (1.6 km) in length and features two 12-foot (3.7 m) lanes with 8-foot (2.4 m) shoulders on both sides. The bridge rises to 72 feet (22 m) to allow marine traffic to pass without interruption of bridge traffic. The new span opened to traffic on January 15, 2008. After completion of the new span, the old bridge was demolished. [4]
U.S. Route 90 or U.S. Highway 90 is an east–west major United States highway in the Southern United States. Despite the "0" in its route number, US 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route. With the exception of a short-lived northward extension to US 62/US 180 near Pine Springs, Texas that existed for less than one year, its western terminus has always been at Van Horn, Texas; this is an intersection with Interstate 10 Business just north of an interchange with Interstate 10. Its eastern terminus is at Florida State Road A1A in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, three blocks from the Atlantic Ocean.
A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the turning span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right. Small swing bridges as found over canals may be pivoted only at one end, opening as would a gate, but require substantial underground structure to support the pivot.
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The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD) is a state government organization in the United States, in charge of maintaining public transportation, roadways, bridges, canals, select levees, floodplain management, port facilities, commercial vehicles, and aviation which includes 69 airports, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The agency has approximately five thousand personnel on staff and an operating budget of $2.3 billion. DOTD operations are run through nine district offices across the state.
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