Louisiana Roads - Bus. US 90/I-910/Future I-49

Business US 90/secret I-910/future I-49, Westbank Expwy.

All photos on the highway itself are WB. US 90 ought to follow this route, which has very few businesses and is part freeway (the secret I-910), and Business US 90 should be on the ground in New Orleans and Metairie. This will all become I-49 in the future, swallowing the I-910 designation as the rest is upgraded to Interstate standards.


Sights in New Orleans before crossing the Mississippi River: the Superdome (still under repair from Hurricane Katrina), St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, and the Robert E. Lee Monument. This is proof that you don't have to destroy the city to build a freeway, although there's no sense of integration between the two. Thanks to the Mississippi River, Business US 90 has to do a complete 180-degree turn to get across from Gretna, so in fact I'm heading due east on the WB side. This will be more interesting with I-49, because the southbound direction will head south toward Morgan City, east on US 90, then northeast to Boutte, east once more to Gretna, then will curve through north and around to west, before ending in the northwest direction. It's directions like these that got Ontario to sign Queen Elizabeth Way from Toronto to Niagara instead of east-west.


Across the Greater New Orleans Bridge, also known as the Crescent City Connection - even the bridge was renamed to promote tourism. That's a way to jazz up the name. I'm terrible, sorry. The pelican is on there because it's the state bird on the state seal. The WB side is 30 years older (1958) and 40 feet narrower (52') than the EB side, but from a distance they look the same, as a credit to the designer of the second bridge.


When they stay on the sign, the shields are too wide and the exit only is inconsistent. I think there are only exit numbers here thanks to I-910, although they use Business 90's mileposts.


Looking back east at the bridge I crossed (or really north from here), then west at the Harvey Canal #1 crossing, also known as the Intracoastal Waterway. While Business 90/I-910 flies far overhead, the service roads get together and drop down in a tunnel way below sea level.


A collection of photos on the frontage road from Exit 4B. Jean Lafitte is a nature preserve (and a person), not a town or a road. Enjoy these green signs, because soon they'll all be gone for plainer black on white shields.


The road gets wider and the font gets narrower. Business 90 created plenty of space for the planned extension of I-910 that will now be the eventual completion of I-49, and the LA 18 shield created space although it won't be used for the same purpose. It ought not to be used at all. Once I-49 comes through, you will no longer have an opportunity to rent this bench. So rent this bench now. You get air conditioning, cable TV, and it even has hourly rates available!


Poorly done shield at the end of Business 90. The exit to US 90 EB is to the left so that it can rise up in time for a railroad bridge just to the northeast. As a curiosity, it has a grade crossing with the US 90 WB-Business 90 EB ramp in the middle of the interchange as a result. There's plenty of room to have flown the exit to 90 EB over that ramp, but LADOTD decided it just wasn't worth the trouble and stuck a traffic signal there instead.


I can't even say this is my favorite bridge in New Orleans (see the US 90 page below for the other one), but because it's smack in the middle of downtown, there are a lot of readily available views. These face southwest.


Here it is by night from the same direction.


And now from the south, facing northeast.

Continue west on future I-49 to US 90 west of New Orleans
Back to I-49 main page

Onto parent US 90

Onto LA 45
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