Judge Perez Bridge | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 29°52′18.7″N90°0′32.0″W / 29.871861°N 90.008889°W |
Carries | 2 lanes of LA 23 North |
Crosses | Gulf Intracoastal Waterway |
Locale | Belle Chasse and Terrytown, Louisiana |
Maintained by | LaDOTD |
Characteristics | |
Total length | 2,654 feet |
Longest span | 150 feet |
Clearance above | 100 feet (open), 40 feet (closed) |
History | |
Opened | September 10, 1968 |
Location | |
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.
The bridge was built to relieve traffic from the Belle Chasse Tunnel. It is named after Leander Perez, a local political boss and segregationist. It was part of a parish project of four-laning Highway 23 throughout the road's entire length to Venice. According to the Plaquemines Gazette, the $3.3 million structure was built by Plaquemines Parish using its Parish Royalty Road Fund without charge to local taxpayers. Boh Brothers worked on its construction. [1]
There have been plans for replacing the tunnel and lift bridge with new and improved high-rise structures, and construction has since started to build a bridge that will replace them.
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.
The Huey P. Long Bridge, located in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, is a cantilevered steel through-truss bridge that carries a two-track railroad line over the Mississippi River at mile 106.1, with three lanes of US 90 on each side of the central tracks. It is several kilometers upriver from the city of New Orleans. The East Bank entrance is at Elmwood, Louisiana, and the West Bank at Bridge City.
The Industrial Canal is a 5.5 mile (9 km) waterway in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The waterway's proper name, as used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and on NOAA nautical charts, is Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC). The more common "Industrial Canal" name is used locally, both by commercial mariners and by landside residents.
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.
Louisiana Highway 82 (LA 82) is a state highway located in southern Louisiana. It runs 142.87 miles (229.93 km) in a general east–west direction from the Texas state line east of Port Arthur to the Vermilion–Lafayette parish line southwest of Youngsville.
Louisiana Highway 45 (LA 45) is a state highway located in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. It runs 22.08 miles (35.53 km) in a north–south direction from a dead end at Bayou Barataria in Lafitte to a junction with LA 18 in Marrero.
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A table bridge is one of the types of moveable bridge in which the deck moves vertically. Two or four hydraulic pillars under the bridge, one or two at each end, raise the bridge deck to allow barge traffic to pass beneath it. In contrast to a lift bridge, where the deck is pulled upwards along towers, the deck of a table bridge is pushed upwards by otherwise hidden pillars. The name originates from the fact that when open it resembles a table.
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 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.
Louisiana Highway 75 (LA 75) is a state highway located in southeastern Louisiana. It runs 46.86 miles (75.41 km) in a general east–west direction from a dead end in Bayou Pigeon to the junction of LA 22 and LA 942 in Darrow.
Louisiana Highway 3134 is a state highway in Louisiana that serves Jefferson Parish. It spans 7.2 miles (11.6 km) in a north-south direction along Leo Kerner/Lafitte Parkway between Jean Lafitte and Estelle and acts as a four-lane bypass to the older Barataria Boulevard.
Louisiana Highway 387 was a state highway that served Plaquemines Parish. It spanned 2.5 miles (4.0 km) in a south to north direction along the west bank of the Mississippi River in Belle Chasse.