A bill signed by Governor Jindal gives the green light to two projects which could transform transportation from the West Bank to New Orleans into a simple, easy ride for those residents commuting from places such as Gretna, Marrero, and Harvey to the Central Business District (CBD) to work everyday.  Currently, the ferry boats that dock at Canal Street and Algiers Point and Chalmette and Lower Algiers are so old that they are constantly breaking down and have the potential for permanently being put out of service because of their ages. One of these ferry boats was built in 1937.  The first project approved by the governor was to design and build these boats.  Construction will take approximately 12 months for the first boat and  6 months for the next boat built after that.

“It gives us the opportunity to use all the procurement options now available to speed up the process to get those ferries built,” Transdev Vice President Justin Augustine said Tuesday. “We talked to boat builders…the feedback was clearly they could get the first built in 12 months and a second one within six months after that.”

Another transportation project that will alleviate stressful travel for those residents that live in Belle Chasse was the fastrack approval of a design / build process for a new bridge that will replace the Belle Chasse Tunnel underneath the Intercoastal Waterway.  Because state law prohibits a design and build process at the same time, in the hands of one contractor, special approval had to be given by the legislature for this caveat.  Similar measures were proposed and passed after Hurricane Katrina to move needed construction projects through to the approval stage at a faster pace.  Overall, through the construction of these two necessary modes of transportation, homeowners on the West Bank will soon have new ways of traveling the short commute to New Orleans while still enjoying the “away-from-the-city” life of living in Jefferson Parish.

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