Renovations To Begin Week After Mardis Gras 2005

Officials at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans (LA) plan to shut down their longest runway just after Mardis Gras next year. The reason? A $50 million construction project to rebuild the east-west runway -- the first major renovation on that runway in more than 20 years -- shore up the runway near a traffic tunnel and install a new floodgate in the hurricane levee.

If you've ever flown into MSY, either as a pilot or passenger, you might well remember that big bump in the runway. It's caused by a traffic tunnel that was built under the runway in the 1980s. The portion of runway over the tunnel was built on pilings. The rest of the runway was not. Since the part without pilings has subsided faster than the part with pilings, work crews have been forced to bridge the difference -- twice.

"Rather than try to continue to patch it up, we decided it would be better to rebuild it," Aviation Director Roy Williams told the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

The project will also raise the East Jefferson hurricane protection levee and repair a partially-collapsed drainage ditch.

The feds are kicking in $10 million toward completion of the project and New Orleans city officials hope that number will rise dramatically before it's all said and done.

"This grant demonstrates the FAA's confidence and dedication to the professional management at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport," Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA) told the Times-Picayune. "It represents the FAA's commitment to aviation safety at Louis Armstrong and maximum utilization of this facility as the long-term aviation center in metropolitan New Orleans."

FMI: www.flymsy.com