Corps lock replacement & Pelicans

The Army Corps of Engineers is considering replacement of the shipping lock on the Industrial Canal in New Orleans and will hold open houses during the second week of December to gather input from residents of four adjacent New Orleans neighborhoods. 

The long-delayed project is undergoing a new $2.8M study aimed at better identifying its costs and impacts. Over decades, Congress has repeatedly failed to approve funding for the project, which originally called for deepening and widening the lock. No funds other than for the study are in the present federal budget. 

At a 2017 public meeting at St. Mary of the Angels Church, some 350 people opposed the new lock project because it is dangerous, environmentally damaging and will drastically impact traffic congestion for over 15 years or more, according to opposition leaders. 

Here's the schedule for the open houses: Monday, Dec. 11, 5:30-7:30 p.m, at the Andrew P. Sanchez & Copelin-Byrd Multi-Service Center, 1616 Fats Domino Ave., New Orleans. Tuesday, Dec. 12, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at the Marigny Opera House, 725 Ferdinand St., New Orleans. Wednesday, Dec. 13, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at Villa St. Maurice, 500 St. Maurice Ave., New Orleans. Thursday, Dec. 14, 4:30-6:30 p.m., Stallings St. Claude Recreation Center, 4300 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans.

 'Lazy' brown pelicans surf Pontchartrain Causeway 

Along the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, huge brown pelicans soar overhead or divebomb into the lake hunting for fish. But often, they also fly alongside the highway guardrail, seemingly right next to the vehicles passing by at 65 mph. “You can actually sometimes see them blinking, they're so close,” said Jennifer Coulson, the chair of the Orleans Audubon Society. It turns out, there’s a reason why they fly this way: They’re “surfing” an updraft alongside the bridge. “Like humans, they’re lazy,” said Carlton Dufrechou, the Causeway’s general manager. Any boost they can get to help them fly with less effort; they’ll take. As the wind blows over Lake Pontchartrain, it hits the bridge, which deflects air upward creating a “declivity current,” according to Robert Thomas, a professor of environmental communications at Loyola University. There’s often an updraft right at the level of the roadway deck, and that’s what the birds take advantage of. Commuters use the Causeway to get to and from work; in much the same way, the birds use the bridge to get to and from their feeding grounds with less effort. (NOLA.com 12/02/23)