The Claiborne Avenue Bridge, officially known as the Judge William Seeber Bridge, is a

vertical lift bridge A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and sw ...

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Industrial Canal The Industrial Canal is a 5.5 mile (9 km) waterway in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The waterway's proper name, as used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and on NOAA nautical charts, is Inner Harbor Navigation Canal ( IHNC). ...

. It was built by the Louisiana Department of Highways (later renamed the Department of Transportation and Development) and opened to vehicular traffic in 1957. The bridge has suffered numerous disasters: A barge hit the bridge in 1993, Hurricane Katrina damaged it in 2005, and a car plunged into the canal in 2008 due to a malfunction.

Description

The bridge carries four vehicular lanes, two in each direction, of North

Claiborne Avenue Claiborne Avenue is a major thoroughfare in New Orleans, Louisiana. It runs the length of the city, about , beginning at the Jefferson Parish line and ending at the St. Bernard Parish line; the street continues under different names in both dire ...

, which here is also Louisiana Highway 39. It accommodates most marine traffic in the down position. The bridge is located in the 9th Ward of New Orleans, with the Upper 9th Ward on the western side and the

Lower 9th Ward The Lower Ninth Ward is a neighborhood in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. As the name implies, it is part of the 9th Ward of New Orleans. The Lower Ninth Ward is often thought of as the entire area within New Orleans downriver of the Industri ...

on the eastern or "lower" (down river) side. Along with St. Claude Avenue, it is one of the main links of New Orleans with the communities in

St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana St. Bernard Parish (french: Paroisse de Saint-Bernard; es, Parroquia de San Bernardo) is a parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat and largest community is Chalmette. The parish was formed in 1807. St. Bernard Parish is part of t ...

such as

Arabi Arabi may refer to: * Ibn Arabi (1165–1240), early medieval Muslim mystic and philosopher *Arabi (sheep) *Arabi, Iran (disambiguation), villages in Iran *Arabi, Ethiopia *Arabi, Georgia, United States *Ahmed ‘Urabi, a 19th-century Egyptian rebe ...

and

Chalmette Chalmette ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in, and the parish seat of, St. Bernard Parish in southeastern Louisiana, United States. The 2010 census reported that Chalmette had 16,751 people; 2011 population was listed as 17,119; however, th ...

. Many locals who regularly use the bridge are unaware of the bridge's official name.

Accidents

Tugboat collision

On May 28, 1993, the tugboat Chris was pushing an empty

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

through the canal toward the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

locks Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

. As was common at the time, the tugboat captain would have to wait to enter the locks, and he was directed to the side of the canal to ground his barge to keep the waterway clear. However, at 3:30 p. m., the barge collided with a support pier of the bridge, causing a section of the bridge to collapse onto the western canal bank and onto the barge. Two automobiles plummeted off of the bridge, killing one person and severely injuring two others. The waterway was closed to navigation for 2 days, and the bridge was closed for 2 months while the collapsed span was rebuilt. The concrete debris from the collapsed span was used to protect the new support pier from future collisions.

Hurricane Katrina

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina severely affected the areas on both sides of the bridge (see

Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans As the center of Hurricane Katrina passed southeast of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 1 range with frequent intense gusts. The storm surge caused approximately 23 breaches in the drainage canal and navi ...

), with the most extreme devastation on the Lower 9th Ward side. The bridge was out of service for months, left in the up position to accommodate Canal shipping, until it was restored to service in early 2006.

Crossing gates malfunction

On May 20, 2008, 17-year veteran New Orleans Police Officer Tommie Felix was killed when his vehicle drove off the bridge and plunged into the canal while the bridge was in the raised position. Eyewitness accounts say that the gates which come down to indicate the bridge's closure were not functioning at the time, and several other cars came close to driving off the bridge but stopped short.

References

{{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place =

Gulf Intracoastal Waterway The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is the portion of the Intracoastal Waterway located along the Gulf Coast of the United States. It is a navigable inland waterway running approximately from Carrabelle, Florida, to Brownsville, Texas. The waterwa ...

Mississippi River Gulf Outlet Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Missis ...

, bridge = Claiborne Avenue Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream text = West , upstream = St. Claude Avenue Bridge , upstream signs = , downstream text = East , downstream =

Florida Avenue Bridge The Florida Avenue Bridge is a vertical lift bridge spanning the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, Louisiana. The bridge has one railroad track, two vehicle lanes and two sidewalks. A parallel high-elevation four-lane roadway bridge is planned. ...

, downstream signs = Bridges in New Orleans Road bridges in Louisiana Vertical lift bridges in Louisiana Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans Bridges completed in 1957 Bridge disasters in the United States Bridge disasters caused by collision Bridge disasters caused by maintenance error Bridge disasters caused by tropical cyclones Bridge disasters involving open moveable bridges Transportation disasters in Louisiana