In 1994, our objective was to jump-start the New Orleans
economy. We immediately went to work reviving an under funded and dormant capital program.
And, in 1995, we developed and passed a historic City-Orleans Parish School Board $300
million bond issue. Voters overwhelmingly approved Rebuild New Orleans NOW!,
a five-year capital improvements program that upgraded and rebuilt neighborhood streets
and boulevards, parks, playgrounds and public buildings. In 2000, voters approved Purposes
A & B which provided an additional $150 million toward capital improvements
and $27 million to upgrade the Orleans Parish Law Enforcement District agencies and
facilities.
Among the notable projects funded under these programs: a new
Crime Lab, improvements to Earhart Boulevard,
construction of Tchoupitoulas Corridor and portions of Convention
Center Boulevard; and renovations to Armstrong Park and the Municipal
Auditorium, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and numerous of the
city's public libraries.
The Louisiana Congressional Delegation helped secure federal
capital funding for improvements at the Customs House, as well as the Louis Armstrong
International Airport and various other federal buildings located in the city. Two other
important downtown projects which received state capital funding are the Downtown Sports
Arena and the LSU Clinical Sciences Building.
Two massive infrastructure improvement programs are
underway-one in drainage and the other in sewerage. Some $55 million in drainage projects
are under construction to add new subsurface canals along Napoleon Avenue, South
Claiborne Avenue and Dwyer Road and in the Hollygrove
area. A pumping station in Broadmoor is being expanded and new pumping
stations are being built to serve the Dwyer Road and Hollygrove areas.
The drainage work is part of the Southeast Louisiana
Urban Flood Protection Program (SELA), a cooperative effort between the Sewerage
and Water Board and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In
sewerage, some $400 million will be spent to upgrade the sewage collection system under
the Sewer System Evaluation and Rehabilitation Program (SSERP). The work,
part of an EPA Consent Decree the Board signed in 1998, began in 1997 and will continue
for the next eight years.
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