One bridge spanning Lake Ponchartrain is the Causeway, the longest bridge in the world, running from Metairie to Mandeville, Louisiana. A second shorter span fom New Orleans East to Slidell was the I-10 bridge which was destroyed during Katrina. There was to have been a third bridge, and the $500K funding from FEMA was to have been spent conducting a study to locate a third span across Lake Pontchartrain for an additional hurricane evacuation route. Krebs LaSalle LeMieux Engineering Company participated with the Greater New Orleans Causeway Commission (GNOEC) in conducting the study for the third span, and there is nothing to show for the $500K in public funds. Shelby LaSalle and a delegation of Causeway Commissioners flew to Washington DC in 1997 to meet with Transportation Lobbyists to persuade Rep. Bob Livingston to allocate the $500K in FEMA funds for the study for the 3rd span of the bridge. "A study of the role of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in hurricane evacuation of the New Orleans region identified the need for additional capacity." Go to website www.fra.dot.gov/downloads/rrdev/peis_v1.pdf. This quote is on page 2-25, the last sentence of the first paragraph. The purpose of this study was to locate a High-Speed Rail Corridor, the Maglev Deployment Program. The GNOEC (Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission) was a sponsor of the plan for the high speed rail project. See Page 2-25, 2-26 and 2-27 of the Maglev Deployment Program report which shows a map of the proposed railway evacuation going direct into Bedico, Louisiana. Somehow the FEMA funding for the study of a third span of the bridge got wrapped up in a study for a high-speed rail project--neither of which materialized. Is it possible that funds were allocated from two different agencies (FEMA and the Federal Railroad Administration) for the same purpose?

Given the fact that there were no back up communications systems (emergency FEMA monies 3/4 Billion) to Louisisanna over 2 years, I'm not sure I could identify where the money went. Does anyone know? Emergency communication systems, shelters, food, portajohns, cots, buses :), I can see how Houston used theirs as their facility (well equipped from their money) to take on additional evacuees from other states. Has anyone done an audit of where our federal dollars went in Lousianna from HLS/FEMA? What did NO do with theirs (i know they did build a fountain for a mardi gras with some of their funds as it was in the newspaper.)

here it is! In recent years, Louisiana has received more federal taxpayer-funded Corps of Engineer grants than any other state and has received more levee funding under the Bush administration than it did under the Clinton administration. However, that funding has been limited by massive boondoggle infrastructure projects like the 700-percent cost overrun for Ted Kennedy's Big Dig?6 billion American tax payers spent on 7.5 miles of Boston highway that could have been spent on NOLA levees, but we digress. The funding New Orleans did receive was often diverted by the city's Levee Board to other projects. For example, the Board spent .4 million of levee funding on a Mardi Gras fountain near Lake Pontchartrain, and 5 million more on overpasses to riverboat casinos. All the while, a big storm was on the horizon. http://patriotpostblog.us/c/articles/c/89/issue.html for more. Again, you have to step back from the media "misinformation" and put all the pieces together. The fountain was on Nagin's watch as was the overpass for the casinos...Gosh this man is money driven, with apparently little regard for valuing homes and people with mispent levees money.

The fountain was on Nagin's watch as was the overpass for the casinos... ++++++++ Not sure what fountain they speak of. The overpass has been there since wayyyy before Nagin. We only have one casino is the CBD and that was opened in 1998

Nagin did take "credit" for the fountain :). Let me find the info on the casino stuff. It's good to validate.

Nagin did take "credit" for the fountain . Let me find the info on the casino stuff. It's good to validate. ++++++++ I dont doubt you, I just dont know where it is. I remember the overpass now its kinda of far from downtown NO but still in NO. You can tell when the "checks" come Balleys is packed.

Along with establishing an Airport and Marina, the levee board is said to have also played a key role in establishing a floating casino and a fiber-optic cable network around the levee. Unfortunately, fiber optics don't hold back much water. However, I would think they, along with a marina, casino and private airport certainly could be good for business. One source indicated that the levee board spent approximately two-million dollars to erect a fountain and light show at a local lake in recent years. And NBC on Sept. 14 By Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit NBC News Updated: 6:26 p.m. ET Sept. 14, 2005 MSNBC TRANSCRIPT "The unveiling of the Mardi Gras Fountain was celebrated this year in typical New Orleans style. The cost of $2.4 million was paid by the Orleans Levee Board, the state agency whose main job is to protect the levees surrounding New Orleans -- the same levees that failed after Katrina hit. "They misspent the money," says Billy Nungesser, a former top Republican official who was briefly president of the Levee Board. "Any dollar they wasted was a dollar that could have went in the levees." Nungesser says he lost his job because he targeted wasteful spending. "A cesspool of politics, that?s all it was," says Nungesser.

What in the world is Ted Kennedy's big-dig 700% overrun?

The Big Dig is the unofficial name of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T), a massive undertaking to route the Central Artery (Interstate 93), the chief controlled-access highway through the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, into a tunnel under the city, replacing a previous elevated roadway. The project also included the construction of the Ted Williams Tunnel (extending Interstate 90 to Logan International Airport) and the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge over the Charles River. At the time, the Big Dig was the most expensive single highway project in American history. When the last major highway section opened in December 2003, over $14.6 billion had been spent in federal and state tax dollars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig