The
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, or the
CausewayIn modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...
, consists of two parallel bridges crossing
Lake PontchartrainLake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second-largest inland saltwater body of water in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana. As an estuary, Pontchartrain is not a true lake.It covers an area of with...
in southern
LouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The longer of the two bridges is 23.83 miles (38.35 km) long. Since 1969 it was listed by
Guinness World RecordsGuinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
as the longest bridge over water in the world; in 2011 in response to the opening of the longer Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China, Guinness created two categories for bridges over water: continuous and aggregate lengths over water. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway then became the longest bridge over water (continuous) while Jiaozhou Bay Bridge the longest bridge over water (aggregate).
The bridges are supported by 9,500 concrete pilings. The two bridges feature
basculeA bascule bridge is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances the span, or "leaf," throughout the entire upward swing in providing clearance for boat traffic....
spans over the navigation channel 8 miles (13 km) south of the north shore. The southern terminus of the Causeway is in
Metairie, LouisianaMetairie is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States and is a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish. It is an unincorporated area that would be larger than most of the state's cities if it were...
, a suburb of New Orleans. The northern terminus is at
Mandeville, LouisianaMandeville is a city in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,421 in 2008. Mandeville is located on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, south of Interstate 12. It is across the lake from the city of New Orleans and its southshore suburbs...
.
History
The idea of a bridge spanning Lake Pontchartrain dates back to the early 19th Century and
Bernard de MarignyBernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville, was a French-Creole American nobleman, playboy, politician, and President of the Louisiana Senate between 1822-1823.-Early life:...
, the founder of Mandeville. He started a ferry service that continued to operate into the mid 1930s. In the 1920s, a proposal called for the creation of artificial islands that would then be linked by a series of bridges. The financing for this plan would come from selling homesites on the islands. The modern Causeway started to take form in 1948 when Ernest M Loeb Jr envisioned the project. Due to his lobbying and vision the Louisiana Legislature created what is now the Causeway Commission. The Louisiana Bridge Company was formed to construct the bridge, who in turn appointed James E. Walters, Sr to direct the project.
The original Causeway was a two-lane span, measuring 23.86 miles (38.4 km) in length, that opened in 1956 at a cost of $30.7 million. A parallel two-lane span, 1/100th of a mile (15 m) longer than the original, opened on May 10, 1969 at a cost of $26 million. The Causeway has always been a toll bridge. Until 1999, tolls were collected from traffic going in each direction. To alleviate congestion on the south shore, toll collections were eliminated on the northbound span. The standard tolls for cars changed from $1.50 in each direction to a $3.00 toll collected on the North Shore for southbound traffic only.
The opening of the Causeway boosted the fortunes of small North Shore communities by reducing drive time into New Orleans by up to 50 minutes, bringing the North Shore into the
New Orleans metropolitan areaNew Orleans–Metairie–Kenner, or the Greater New Orleans Region is a metropolitan area designated by the United States Census encompassing seven parishes in the state of Louisiana, centering on the city of New Orleans...
. Prior to the Causeway, residents of St. Tammany Parish used either the
Maestri BridgeThe Maestri Bridge carries U.S. Route 11 across Lake Pontchartrain between New Orleans and Slidell, Louisiana. The bridge opened on February 18, 1928 as the first permanent crossing of Lake Pontchartrain...
on
U.S. Route 11U.S. Route 11 is a north–south United States highway extending 1,645 miles across the eastern United States. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 90 in the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge in eastern New Orleans, Louisiana. The northern terminus is at the United...
or the Rigolets Bridge on
U.S. Route 90U.S. Route 90 is an east–west United States highway. Despite the "0" in its route number, U.S. 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route; it has always ended at Van Horn, Texas. A short-lived northward extension to U.S...
, both near
Slidell, LouisianaSlidell is a city situated on the northeast shore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 25,695 at the 2000 census. The Greater Slidell Community has a population of about 90,000...
or on the west side via
U.S. Route 51U.S. Route 51 is a north–south United States highway that runs for 1,286 miles from the western suburbs of New Orleans, Louisiana to within of the Wisconsin-Michigan border. Much of the highway in Illinois and southern Wisconsin runs parallel to or overlaps Interstate 39...
through
Manchac, LouisianaManchac is a small unincorporated community in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Hammond Micropolitan Statistical Area....
.
After
Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
on August 29, 2005, videos collected showed damage to the bridge, but the damage was mostly on the unused turnaround on the older southbound span; the structural foundations remained intact. The Causeways have never sustained major damage of any sort due to hurricanes and other natural occurrences, a rarity in the causeway community. The existing fiber optic cable plant was blown out of the tray but remained intact per
optical time domain reflectometerAn optical time-domain reflectometer is an optoelectronic instrument used to characterize an optical fiber. An OTDR injects a series of optical pulses into the fiber under test. It also extracts, from the same end of the fiber, light that is scattered or reflected back from points along the fiber...
(OTDR) analysis. With the
I-10 Twin Span Bridge severely damaged, the Causeway was used as a major route for recovery teams staying in highlands to the North to get into New Orleans. The Causeway reopened first to emergency traffic and then to the general public, with tolls suspended, on September 19. Tolls were reinstated by mid-October.
The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is one of seven highway spans in
LouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
that have a total length of 5 miles (8 km) or more. The others are, in order from longest to shortest, the
Manchac Swamp bridgeThe Manchac Swamp Bridge is a twin concrete trestle bridge in the US state of Louisiana. With a total length of it is one of the longest bridges in the world over water. The bridge carries Interstate 55 over the Manchac Swamp in Louisiana, and represents one-third of the highway's approximately...
on
I-55Interstate 55 is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Its odd number indicates that it is a north–south Interstate Highway. I-55 goes from LaPlace, Louisiana at Interstate 10 to Chicago at U.S. Route 41 , at McCormick Place. A common nickname for the highway is "double...
, the
Atchafalaya Basin BridgeThe Atchafalaya Basin Bridge is a pair of parallel bridges in the US state of Louisiana between Baton Rouge and Lafayette which carries Interstate 10 over the Atchafalaya Basin. With a total length of or 18.2 miles, it is the fourteenth longest bridge in the world by total length.The bridge...
on
I-10Interstate 10 is the fourth-longest Interstate Highway in the United States, after I-90, I-80, and I-40. It is the southernmost east–west, coast-to-coast Interstate Highway, although I-4 and I-8 are further south. It stretches from the Pacific Ocean at State Route 1 in Santa Monica,...
, the
Bonnet Carré SpillwayThe Bonnet Carré Spillway is a flood control operation in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Located in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana - about west of New Orleans - it allows floodwaters from the Mississippi River to flow into Lake Pontchartrain and thence into the Gulf of Mexico...
bridge on I-10, the Chacahoula Swamp Bridge on
U.S. 90U.S. Route 90 is an east–west United States highway. Despite the "0" in its route number, U.S. 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route; it has always ended at Van Horn, Texas. A short-lived northward extension to U.S...
, the Lake Pontchartrain Twin Spans on I-10, and the LaBranche Wetlands Bridge on
I-310Interstate 310 is a short spur route of Interstate 10 near New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It runs south from Interstate 10 near the New Orleans International Airport, intersects with U.S. Highway 61 and ends at the junction with U.S...
. The
Maestri BridgeThe Maestri Bridge carries U.S. Route 11 across Lake Pontchartrain between New Orleans and Slidell, Louisiana. The bridge opened on February 18, 1928 as the first permanent crossing of Lake Pontchartrain...
comes close, but runs short two tenths of a mile at roughly 4.8 miles (7.7 km) in total length. In a few years the Leeville-
Port FourchonPort Fourchon is Louisiana’s southernmost port, located on the southern tip of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, on the Gulf of Mexico. It is a sea port, with significant petroleum industry traffic from offshore Gulf oil platforms and drilling rigs as well as the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port pipeline...
Bridge on
Louisiana Highway 1Louisiana Highway 1 is a state highway in Louisiana. At 436.20 miles , it is the longest numbered highway of any class in Louisiana. It runs diagonally across the state, connecting the oil and gas fields near the island of Grand Isle with the northwest corner of the state, north of Shreveport.The...
at over 17 miles (27.4 km) in total length will join this list. Louisiana is also home to the
Norfolk Southern Lake Pontchartrain BridgeThe Norfolk Southern Lake Pontchartrain Bridge is a bridge that carries a single-track of Norfolk Southern rail line between Slidell and New Orleans, Louisiana. At 5.8 miles long, it is the longest railroad bridge in the United States and likely the longest rail bridge over water on Earth. The...
, which at 5.8 miles (9.3 km) is one of the longest railway bridges in the United States.
The southern end of the Manchac Swamp bridge (on the western edge of Lake Pontchartrain) is the western end of the Bonnet Carré Spillway bridge (on the southwestern edge of Lake Pontchartrain) and the northern end of the LaBranche Wetlands (Destrehan Swamp) bridge is the eastern end of the Bonnet Carré Spillway bridge, so these three bridges by name are in fact one contiguous bridge. The total driving distance on continuous elevated roadway is over 38 miles (61.2 km).
Longest bridge controversy July 2011
For decades Lake Pontchartrain Causeway was listed by
Guinness World RecordsGuinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
as the longest bridge over water in the world. In July 2011 the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China was named by Guinness as the 'longest bridge over water'. At that time there was some controversy in the USA as the former holder of the record, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, disagreed with Guinness and still called itself the longest. It made this claim by ruling on the title according to its own definition — that is, how much of a bridge is physically over water, saying the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is over water for 25.5 kilometres (15.8 mi) while Lake Pontchartrain Causeway crosses water for 38.28 km. However, the quoted number of 25.5 kilometres (15.8 mi) was made by a representative of Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and the methodology they used for arriving at this number was unstated; for example, Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is a complex structure with some entry/exit ramps extending independently (as separate bridges) for long distances over open water, and curves in the bridge adding additional distances — it was unstated if these were accounted for or not in the 25.5 km figure. Guinness World Records states that the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is 42.5 kilometres (26.4 mi) long.
In July 2011, in response to the controversy, Guinness created two categories for bridges over water: continuous and aggregate lengths over water. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway then became the longest bridge over water (continuous) while Jiaozhou Bay Bridge became the longest bridge over water (aggregate).
See also
- List of bridges in the United States
- List of longest bridges in the world
- Megaproject
A megaproject is an extremely large-scale investment project. Megaprojects are typically defined as costing more than US$1 billion and attracting a lot of public attention because of substantial impacts on communities, environment, and budgets. Megaprojects can also be defined as "initiatives that...
- Prestressed concrete
Prestressed concrete is a method for overcoming concrete's natural weakness in tension. It can be used to produce beams, floors or bridges with a longer span than is practical with ordinary reinforced concrete...
External links