Construction has begun on a minor road project in the Freret neighborhood intended to improve access to Ochsner Baptist Medical Center prior to the major traffic disruptions that will accompany an upcoming drainage project on Napoleon Avenue.
The pavement will be replaced and storm drains and water leaks will be repaired along two blocks of Clara (from Napoleon to Cadiz) and one adjacent block of Jena, said Robert Mendoza, New Orleans director of Public Works, at a small town-hall meeting Tuesday night. The construction of a major box canal underneath Napoleon Avenue this summer will hamper ambulance service to the hospital, so the city requested and received federal tax money to improve the secondary routes to the hospital beforehand, he said.
“Its main goal is to provide secondary access to the Oschner emergency room and parking when Napoleon shuts down,” Mendoza said of the project.
The project is technically known as the Freret-Napoleon project, a confusing misnomer because both Napoleon and Freret are scheduled for significant work in the coming months. In addition to the Napoleon box canal, the city will be renovating the Freret streetscape along the commercial corridor – an unrelated project that nevertheless drew a few questions Tuesday night as well. Kellie Grengs of the Freret Business and Property Owners Association took the opportunity to ask Mendoza to install electrical sockets atop the new LED streetlights that will be placed along the street, so that business owners could install strands of Christmas-style lights along the street.
“I think this is an opportunity to make Freret Street a signature corridor like no other corridor in New Orleans,” Grengs said.
“If I don’t have to maintain the little festive lights, I’d have more interest in it,” Mendoza replied.
The property owners association and Freret Neighbors United only became aware of the meeting about 24 hours prior to its taking place, which drew the ire of several attendees.
“Shouldn’t there be notification of the neighborhood association so the neighborhood association can get the information out?” asked resident Jane Dimitry, pointing at the attendance of less than a dozen people. “There does not appear to be a good mechanism of getting the neighborhood involved.”
Mendoza replied that fliers had been physically posted on the doors surrounding the project itself, and that a separate community meeting about the larger Freret streetscape project would be advertised to more homes. After more pressure from the attendees, however, he acknowledged that failing to communicate with the association directly was an oversight that will be corrected in any future meetings.
