NEW ORLEANS — Today, Mayor LaToya Cantrell joined other officials and community leaders to celebrate the beginning of the Moving New Orleans Bikes (MNOB) construction in Algiers that feature 11 miles of bikeways in 11 neighborhood corridors.
Officials marked the work that has begun on Newton Street, which will feature protected bike lanes on both sides of the street from Elmira to Behrman avenues, with appropriate striping. The striping is scheduled to be completed by the end of this week; the project is expected to be completed by June 30.
[WATCH: MNOB-Algiers kick-off press conference and paint-rolling]
The work comes as the City is making historic and innovative use of our streets, including last December’s reconfiguration of the stretch of Marconi Drive and Orleans Avenue shared by Delgado Community College and City Park. Also, today, the City completed the two-week “Slow Streets” initiative that limited “through traffic” on a one-mile stretch of the downtown side of Moss Street along Bayou St. John.
“My administration is focused on making it better for everyone who uses our streets, including drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders. I am excited to be kicking-off this work to construct 75 miles of protected bike infrastructure throughout the City and to be making a real investment in the quality of life for our people,” said Mayor Cantrell. “We are rethinking our roadways. We showed it with the reconfiguration along Marconi Drive and Orleans Avenue, and, more recently, the Slow Streets initiative on Moss Street, and now with this work happening throughout Algiers.”
“This administration remains committed to improving and expanding our citywide bikeway network, and we are excited to have the first phase of the “Moving New Orleans Bikes” built out in Algiers. The new protected bike lanes will provide recreation, connectivity to both ferries on the Westbank, and improve the quality of life of Algiers residents,” said Kristin Gisleson Palmer, Councilmember,
The City engaged the community early on in our decision-making process around what the larger network would look like,” said Ramsey Green, Deputy CAO for Infrastructure. “We had 12 community meetings last year over the course of several months to engage with residents in each council district. We also partnered with organizations such as Bike Easy and the Complete Streets Coalition to ensure that people would know and understand what is coming and be able to participate if they wanted to be part of the process.”
“The Moving New Orleans Bikes planning and construction project will link the City by bicycle in an unprecedented way,” said Laura Bryan, Director, Mayor’s Office of Transportation.
City officials stressed the importance of taking a comprehensive approach to the bike expansion work, that includes completing road repairs so that streets are functional and adding high-visibility crosswalks, sidewalks and bus stops prior to new bike lanes.
The work is being supervised by the Department of Public Works, led by Director Keith LaGrange, and overseen by Project Managers Jennifer Ruley and Louis Haywood, with support from Maintenance staff, including Daniel Lee. Contractors for the project include Pavement Markings, LLC, and Hard Rock Construction, LLC. The Newton Street project cost is $376,946.40. (See graphic below.) Mayor Cantrell was joined by Councilmember Palmer, Deputy CAO Green, D
The work in Algiers is part of a considerable amount of overall infrastructure work underway around the city, including the six projects worth nearly $20 million on the Westbank.
Residents’ patience is appreciated during this work; they are encouraged to visit the RoadWork NOLA website at roadwork.nola.gov or call the Construction Hotline at 504.658.ROAD for information on projects.
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