U.S. Route 90 Business (New Orleans, Louisiana)

Highway in New Orleans, Louisiana

U. S. Highway 90 Business (US 90 Bus.) is a business route of U. S. Highway 90 located in and near New Orleans, Louisiana. It runs 14.25 mile (23 km) in a general east–west direction from US 90 in Avondale to a junction with Interstate 10 (I 10) and US 90 in the New Orleans Central Business District. Unlike a typical business route, US 90 Bus. is built to a higher standard than the segment of US 90 that it parallels. More than half of the route is an elevated freeway with frontage roads while mainline US 90 is a divided six lane surface highway. It is also the only business route of a U. S. Highway in Louisiana that is not derived from a former alignment of its parent route. US 90 Bus. was newly constructed between 1954 and 1960 while the parallel section of US 90 has remained largely unchanged since 1936. US 90 Bus. initially heads eastward along the Westbank Expressway, serving a number of suburban communities in Jefferson Parish located on the west bank of the Mississippi River. These include Westwego, Marrero, Harvey, and Gretna, the parish seat. After transitioning from a surface route to an elevated freeway in Marrero, US 90 Bus. traverses a high level bridge over the Harvey Canal, a link in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, while the frontage roads pass through the Harvey Tunnel. Shortly after entering an area of New Orleans known as Algiers, US 90 Bus. curves due west onto the Crescent City Connection, a twin span cantilever bridge across the Mississippi River. The highway continues alongside the downtown area as part of the elevated Pontchartrain Expressway to a complex interchange with I 10 and mainline US 90 adjacent to the Superdome. The entirety of US 90 Bus. is intended to become part of I 49 once that highway is extended along the present US 90 corridor from Lafayette to New Orleans. In the meantime, the route carries the designation of Future I 49, as approved by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in 1999. While the Federal Highway Administration approved the existing freeway portion of US 90 Bus. to be signed as Interstate 910 in the interim, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development did not follow through with an application to the AASHTO's U. S. Route Numbering Committee, and the designation remains unused.

From the west, US 90 Bus. begins at a modified trumpet interchange with US 90 in a sparsely developed area of Jefferson Parish surrounded by the suburban city of Westwego, Bayou Segnette State Park, and an industrial area formerly known as Avondale Shipyard. Mainline US 90 connects with Boutte to the west and the Huey P. Long Bridge across the Mississippi River to the east (geographically north). Due to the proximity of the BNSF/Union Pacific Railroad overpass on eastbound US 90, the ramp from westbound US 90 Bus. travels in an indirect fashion and intersects an eastbound ramp at grade at a four way stop. As a result, a significant amount of local traffic circumvents this movement by turning onto Nine Mile Point Road toward a signalized intersection with US 90 that features a protected no stop turn lane. US 90 Bus. heads southeast along the Westbank Expressway as a divided four lane highway and intersects Segnette Boulevard, the entrance to the Alario Center and Bayou Segnette State Park. Soon afterward, US 90 Bus. widens to six lanes, and the median width increases from 41 feet (12 m) to 206 feet (63 m). Upon entering the city of Westwego, US 90 Bus. becomes a developed commercial corridor, and an intersection with LA 18 Spur (Louisiana Street) provides a route for truck traffic to the industrial facilities along the riverfront. The highway crosses from Westwego into the unincorporated community of Marrero immediately past Victory Drive and curves due east, maintaining a parallel trajectory to the Mississippi River. At Carmadelle Street, several blocks past a signalized intersection with Westwood Drive, a ramp leads through traffic onto an elevated six lane freeway, which begins in the median. The ground level portion of the Westbank Expressway continues straight ahead as frontage roads serving local businesses and maintains a six lane capacity.

After climbing to a height of 150 feet (46 m) above the Mississippi River, US 90 Bus. enters the New Orleans Central Business District and crosses over the city's Convention Center. The highway simultaneously engages in an interchange with Tchoupitoulas Street at exit 11A, the designated exit for truck traffic associated with the Port of New Orleans. (This exit is signed westbound as exit 11 to Tchoupitoulas and South Peters Streets.) US 90 Bus. proceeds northwest onto the Pontchartrain Expressway, an elevated six lane freeway in the center of Calliope Street, a divided surface street. Several overlapping interchanges with limited movements further serve the business district, beginning with exit 12A (Camp Street), which passes between the National World War II Museum and Lee Circle. This is followed by exit 12D (Carondelet Street/St. Charles Avenue). In addition to being a significant downtown street, St. Charles Avenue is a scenic oak tree lined boulevard that traverses uptown neighborhoods such as the Garden District and Carrollton. Exit 12C connects with Loyola Avenue, a divided downtown thoroughfare that provides access to the Union Passenger Terminal and the city's two major entertainment venues—the Superdome and New Orleans Arena. At Loyola Avenue, Calliope Street becomes Earhart Boulevard, which serves as a frontage road for a short distance until US 90 Bus. departs from its alignment. The posted speed limit is along the surface portion of the route, increasing to throughout the west bank freeway portion. The remainder of the route across the Crescent City Connection and along the Pontchartrain Expressway is generally posted at .

The three main elements that constitute the route of US 90 Bus. in New Orleans—the Westbank Expressway, the Crescent City Connection, and the Pontchartrain Expressway—were initially conceived between the 1920s and 1940s as separate projects.

In 1926, New Orleans visionary George A. Hero and engineer Allen S. Hackett proposed the construction of a bridge across the Mississippi River located in downtown New Orleans. At the time, there was no automobile bridge spanning the river south of Memphis, Tennessee. While its construction was authorized by the United States Congress the following year, the project languished in the face of the Great Depression. This bridge was constructed and financed jointly between the Louisiana Highway Commission and the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad primarily to accommodate railroad traffic, which up to that time was forced to cross the river by ferry between the rail yards at Avondale and Harahan. While it contained automobile lanes that benefited through traffic on US 90 through the area, the bridge's location made it inconvenient for local travel between New Orleans and the developing communities on the opposite side of the river. During the 1930s, this once rural area was transformed into a booming industrial corridor focused along the Mississippi River and the Harvey Canal, which had become a link in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. By 1942, the existing highway had become heavily congested, and the draw bridge crossing of the Harvey Canal was specifically cited as one of the worst traffic bottlenecks in the entire state. That year, the Jefferson Parish Police Jury and a committee of local citizens began to lobby the state highway department to alleviate the problem by constructing a new four lane highway parallel to the existing Route 30. The proposed bypass would extend from US 90 near the Huey P. Long Bridge to the Algiers Naval Station. It would also feature a bridge across the Harvey Canal with a higher draw span, allowing most marine traffic to pass underneath without impeding the flow of vehicular traffic. In 1946, the Louisiana Department of Highways engaged New York based urban planner, Robert Moses, to study traffic patterns in the New Orleans metropolitan area and compile a report to address current and future transportation needs. Moses devised a multi phase plan that incorporated both the downtown bridge proposal and the west bank bypass highway. The plan also included the Pontchartrain Expressway, another project discussed for many years involving the construction of a modern highway connecting the downtown area with US 61 (Airline Highway), the main route to the state capital. Moses' plan combined these elements into a continuous traffic artery and provided cost estimates as well as engineering evaluations by the New York firm of Andrews and Clark. Approved by the Louisiana Department of Highways in October 1951, the tunnel had replaced the earlier idea of a bridge across the Harvey Canal. Although the more expensive option, the tunnel would be quicker to build and could be used as a bomb shelter in case the Cold War were to heat up.|group=lower alpha Intersections were provided at major cross streets between these points while two lane frontage roads provided access to all services and remaining cross streets. The frontage roads began at Louisiana Street in Westwego and continued to the Victory Drive interchange in Algiers, interrupted only at the Harvey Tunnel, through which only the central express lanes traveled. On September 5, 1957, the Harvey Tunnel was opened to traffic and was touted as the first fully automatic underwater vehicular tunnel in the world. Completion of the tunnel was more than 20 months behind schedule due to unexpected soil and cofferdam difficulties. Also placed into service were the adjacent portions of the West Bank Expressway extending west to Barataria Boulevard in Marrero and east to Franklin Avenue in Gretna. A newly reconstructed and improved Franklin Avenue carried through traffic into Algiers at this time. The Greater New Orleans Bridge, now the westbound (geographically eastbound) span of the Crescent City Connection, began construction in early 1955. Also opened was the first section of the Pontchartrain Expressway, New Orleans' first controlled access freeway, extending from the bridge to an interchange with US 90 (South Claiborne Avenue). The Pontchartrain Expressway also carried four lanes of traffic in its original configuration and contained partial interchanges at Camp Street, St. Charles Avenue, Dryades Street (now O'Keefe Avenue), and Loyola Avenue. After the opening of the Greater New Orleans Bridge, the Louisiana Department of Highways focused on extending its adjoining expressways to their intended termini. The Pontchartrain Expressway was completed between US 90 (South Claiborne Avenue) and US 61 (Airline Highway) in February 1960. During construction, this segment had been incorporated into the new Interstate Highway System as part of I 10 and was signed accordingly by the end of the year. In September 1960, the Westbank Expressway was completed westward from Barataria Boulevard to its interchange with US 90 near Avondale, which involved filling in a section of Westwego's historic Company Canal. With this accomplished, the designation of US 90 Bus. was applied to the entire route comprising the Westbank Expressway, Greater New Orleans Bridge, and the Pontchartrain Expressway as far as the Claiborne interchange, as it now connected with US 90 at either end. Prior to 1960, the entire route carried the state highway designation of LA 3019, which was changed from Route 2200 in the 1955 Louisiana Highway renumbering.

In December 1972, the I 10 viaduct in the median of South Claiborne Avenue was completed, closing a gap in the interstate's route between the Pontchartrain Expressway and Tulane Avenue. New ramps were added to directly connect the two sections of I 10 and allow through traffic to bypass the Claiborne interchange. However, no direct connection was provided between US 90 Bus. and the new section of I 10 along South Claiborne Avenue. During the 1960s and 1970s, the suburbs of New Orleans continued to grow dramatically, including the communities on the west bank of the Mississippi River. The resulting traffic congestion on the Westbank Expressway led to plans that would ultimately convert most of the route into an elevated controlled access freeway. This project was carried out in stages beginning in September 1977 with the construction of a high level bridge across the Harvey Canal. When completed in May 1984, the bridge became the route for through traffic while the frontage roads were reconfigured to utilize the existing Harvey Tunnel. and to Stumpf Boulevard the following September. After several delays, the portion between Stumpf Boulevard and Terry Parkway was completed in February 1987. By 1993, the elevated Westbank Expressway was completed from the General de Gaulle Drive interchange to its present terminus near Westwood Drive in Marrero. The original expressway lanes had been removed from that point through Westwego during the 1980s, leaving all traffic to utilize the existing service roads, which were improved and widened. As of 2020, plans to complete the expressway through Westwego have not come to fruition, although the route is part of the future extension of I 49. By the 1970s, heavy traffic congestion on the Greater New Orleans Bridge and Pontchartrain Expressway led to the planning of a massive road project that would ultimately become the longest running in the state's history. Construction began in September 1980 on a parallel span of the Greater New Orleans Bridge designed to carry eastbound traffic on US 90 Bus., freeing the original span to carry four lanes of westbound traffic. The Pontchartrain Expressway was also twinned between the new bridge and the Claiborne interchange, after which the original viaduct was extensively rebuilt. A new exit serving the recently improved Tchoupitoulas Street corridor created a route for truck traffic associated with the Port of New Orleans that had formerly traversed residential uptown neighborhoods. Several ramps accessed directly from neighborhood streets were removed and reconfigured, which was made possible by the construction of new service roads along the expressway. Preservationists celebrated the long awaited removal of an entrance ramp on Camp Street in the city's historic Lower Garden District, which was replaced by a less conspicuous ramp looping underneath the expressway. Perhaps most significant among the numerous other improvements, new flyover ramps were built to finally provide a direct connection to I 10 east of the Claiborne interchange. For years, motorists had utilized the US 90 east off ramp to reach I 10 east while performing a dangerous and illegal maneuver that caused numerous accidents and fatalities over the years but was often tolerated by law enforcement out of necessity. The new span of the Greater New Orleans Bridge was completed in 1988, and both spans were collectively renamed the Crescent City Connection the following year. The entire project was completed and opened to traffic in June 1996 after 16 years and an expenditure of approximately $480 million.

The entire route of US 90 Bus. is planned to become part of I 49, which is currently being extended from Lafayette to New Orleans along the present US 90 corridor. The proposed route south of I 310 in Boutte, which includes US 90 Bus., was officially approved as Future I 49 by the American Association of State Highway Officials on October 1, 1999. Signage identifying the route as such can be seen at various points along the Westbank Expressway. The Federal Highway Administration approved the existing freeway portion of US 90 Bus. to be signed as Interstate 910 in the interim, subject to the approval of the AASHTO's Route Numbering Committee. However, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development did not follow through, and the designation remains unused.