Friday the 13th turns out to be a lucky day for travelers arriving at Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The new interstate on-ramp that will take road traffic direct from the airport to the downtown-bound I-10 opens.
Arriving passengers can now drive above the light at Loyola and Veterans, and proceed straight to the interstate.
"This is a project that has far reaching effects; that a lot of people have been waiting for," said Daniel Gitlin with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
The opening comes sort of ahead of schedule -- in the summer, DoTD announced it would be November when the new ramps opened.
"It makes a big difference and they really worked very hard and we had some good weather and those things, together, we got a little bit ahead of schedule," said Gitlin.
The entire project had to deal with delays created by Hurricane Ida and post-pandemic supply shortages.
Still to come is re-working the I-10 / Loyola interchange into what's known as a "diverging diamond," which will do away with left turn signals for drivers getting on I-10.
