Many thanks to Michael Lindsay of Louisiana for providing this history and explanation of the strange 'abandoned' main lanes of the Westbank Expressway near New Orleans.

The history of the Westbank Expressway and also the future is as follows: it was built in the mid-fifties as an 'alternate route' to supplement US 90 when the Greater New Orleans bridge came about. As far as I know, it opened completely in 1959 with the opening of the GNO bridge (it was just the one span then) and its original form was a four-lane super highway that was partially-controlled access with service roads, with the exception of red lights at major intersections, and the service roads were interupted by the Harvey Canal, with the four highway lanes continuing through the tunnel. The service roads also stopped outside Westwego and at the Parish Line where the old toll booth used to be on the old bridge when it was two-way traffic.

It was proposed much in the same way as an interstate when it was first created in the fact that it absorbed existing right-of-ways and connected them to form a seamless highway (mowing down houses and whatever stood in the straight line from highway to highway). I have maps which show it under construction, as well as the old state highway numbers on the sections of highway that had not been constructed upon at time of cartography. For example, the tunnel underneath the Harvey Canal pre-dates the expressway by 2-3 years, and is designated as a State Highway that ran from Baritaria Blvd. in Marrero to Whitney Blvd. which is just outside Gretna, which will account for diffrences in the width of the right of way of the highway.

The overhead expressway we drive on today was proposed and funded in the early seventies and began constuction in 1978. It has just recently within the last 18 months been fully completed. It ends at Westwood Drive in marrero, on ground level. I watched them remove the middle lanes you refer to. I remember when they were the main traffic lanes. Today, in Westwego, you drive on three lanes one way on which used to be a two-way service road on either side of the main highway. Reason for this is simple. You touched on it in your webpage. The overhead expressway was proposed in the seventies during the oil boom and was supposed to go overhead all the way to Avondale where it would drop to ground level and proceed to boute, thus following the proposed 410 which never came to be. Funding died while the expressway was in Marrero, so it terminates to ground level in Marrero. The service lanes were built first. Which is also why you saw the old highway still there in the median - they patched it up and shaped the land as the
expessway was built,because this was a re-tooling job.

BUT.... If you didnt know already, Highway 90 from Lafayette to the Superdome has been designated as the future corridor for Interstate 49 so inevitabily,the expressway will either continue, or the westbank will be effectivley cut in half by a ground level interstate highway. I have also heard of 149's and 249's criss-crossing Westbank, Jefferson Parish and Metarie....something to do with the Earheart Expressway and the widening project of the Huey P. Long Bridge...As i said earlier I have old photographs of the Pontchartrain Blvd and Metarie Road/City Park Drive area before construction of the Ponchartrain Expressway as well as the Carrolton/Tulane/Ponchartrain Expressway as it was while being constructed.

Above: a photo of Ponchartrain Blvd taken BEFORE the Pontchartrain Expressway was built.  Notice there is no canal in the median.  The photo below shows the Ponchartrain Expressway in 1955.  Look carefully just to the left of the center of the photo to notice how the road ends abruptly, probably for a future exit connection.