Big news for New Orleans residents tired of dodging potholes: Mayor Moreno and the New Orleans City Council announced a plan to pour over $6 million into street paving projects, a move that marks a significant shift toward a municipal-run approach for infrastructure repairs. The council confirmed the reallocation of funds sourced from unused bonds ranging from 2019 to 2024, ensuring the city itself will patch, pave, and maintain its own roads with newly acquired equipment and a dedicated workforce as part of a new, in-house Street Maintenance Unit, as reported by the City of New Orleans.
This isn’t just about fixing streets, though; it’s a concerted effort to keep jobs local—with Mayor Moreno’s office and the City Council advocating for employing New Orleans citizens to better their own community, these extra dollars are aimed at job creation as much as smoother rides, the ordinance details aims to redirect $5.8 million previously earmarked for private contractor bids, which will now support the new paving outfit, hiring 50 full-timers for the task at hand, fostering homegrown talent in tackling the literal groundwork of urban improvement, according to the City of New Orleans.
According to a press release from the City of New Orleans, additional reallocations of funds cancel some external contractor projects, like the Broad St. Bridge Delineator Upgrades, pursuing grant funds instead, while the Downtown Development District re-routed nearly $18k meant for drainage improvements, instead feeding the newly minted paving program…