Tagged: Department of Transportation and Development

The Pointe-a-la-Hache ferry landing has been closed indefinitely as unsafe. A Plaquemines Parish news release says the Department of Transportation and Development ordered it closed immediately on Wednesday.

The landing was damaged by Hurricane Isaac. The parish has been working on repairs for more than a year to keep it running. It says the landing isn't eligible for Federal Emergency Management Administration aid because a previous administration didn't give any details about repairs that FEMA paid for after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

A joint effort between the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans has completed $11.3 million in street and sidewalk improvements in the French Quarter.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development said in a Friday release that the work in New Orleans' tourist heartland was mostly completed in December, although some minor items remain.

Parts of eight streets were paved with new asphalt, curbs and sidewalks were repaired and wheelchair ramps were installed. Street names are being set in New Orleans' trademark blue-and-white tiles at corners.

The new year is bringing free rush-hour tow trucks to help keep traffic flowing on one of the nation's busiest bridges.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development says a tow truck will be stationed on the Crescent City Connection Bridge for three hours in the morning and three in the evening on weekdays.

The department says in a news release that the bridge is the nation's fifth busiest, with more than 156,000 vehicles crossing it daily and more than 33 million a year.

The Crescent City Connection Police Department has been transferred to Louisiana State Police as part of a restructuring of the bridge police division.

The state Department of Transportation and Development says the police department's administrative transfer to the Department of Public Safety was effective Monday.

Officials say the New Orleans-based bridge police officers will continue wearing their current uniforms and using their current marked vehicles until midnight Dec. 31. At that time, the officers will get new DPS uniforms and vehicles.