The Big River Coalition is pleased to announce that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with the assistance of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development was able to restore the critical air gap sensor at the Crescent City Connection Bridge.

This air gap sensor is in the suite of products covered in the Lower Mississippi River Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System or PORTS^® data. The air gap sensor is located on the southernmost of the two Crescent City Connection Bridges at Mile 95.7 Above Head of Passes (AHP).  The air gap sensor was knocked offline by Hurricane Ida and efforts to restore the sensor included a lane closure on the bridge that was successfully coordinated by NOAA and LDOTD overnight.

The Crescent City Connection is the first or southernmost bridge that crosses the Mississippi River and is key to providing accurate vertical clearance data, navigation stakeholders would love to have Air Gap sensors on all six of the bridges that cross over the Mississippi River Ship Channel from Baton Rouge south to the Crescent City Connection.  For reference there are two Crescent City Connection bridges one at Mile 95.7 AHP and one just upriver of it at Mile 95.8 AHP.  This air gap sensor provides critical real-time vertical clearance data for pilots and navigation stakeholders to ensure vessels can safely transit under the bridge for ships transiting to or from the Ports of New Orleans, South Louisiana and Baton Rouge which are all upriver or north of this structure.

The link to the Crescent City Connection’s Air Gap sensor is available by clicking here.

The message below was shared by our colleague Chris DiVeglio as NOAA’s Maritime Services Program Manager for the PORTS^® Program:

“I am pleased to share that the Crescent City Air Gap station was brought back online this afternoon and data is now disseminating once again following Ida repairs. Thanks to the NOAA Gulf Coast Field Team for their hard work. Feel free to forward this message as appropriate.”