Drivers tired of navigating the uneven surfaces left by Hurricane Katrina may be getting some relief, as a coalition of local, state and federal leaders promised a change for the better in the coming months – they are starting a major development to repair flood-damaged streets.

The ground-breaking on Crowder Boulevard at Dwyer Road signaled the start of the Submerged Road Repair Program, a joint local, state and federal project that uses $160 million Federal Highway Administration dollars to repair 52 roads across Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes that flooded after Katrina.

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"We were in Chicago for seven months, and we were blessed, but my family said, 'Mom, please don't get rid of the house, let's go back home,'” Lula Ward, a New Orleans East resident, said. But Ward said that the roads were a mess when she came home.

Ward was one of the residents who smiled as she watched the ground-breaking, seeing the Crowder Road reconstruction as a sign of her neighborhood returning to normal.

"Oh I'm very delighted,” Ward said. “We are very delighted -- all us home owners -- we are very delighted."

Project leaders worked more than a year setting up the program, but as they looked around at businesses and homes being repaired and re-occupied in New Orleans East, they could see how important good roads were.

"Getting the transportation network up and running in this region is critical to the economic development in this area," said Carl Highsmith from the Federal Highway Administration.

For streets submerged under the weight of many feet of flood-water, then battered by clean-up trucks, the project will replace broken curbs and sidewalks, and re-pave the road surface. But they say the key is they are finding and fixing hidden problems under the surface.

"This is groundbreaking work. We haven't done at the federal level or state any practical analysis of what is the useful life of a road that has been submerged for five weeks,” said Dr. William Ankner, State Transportation Secretary.

They hope to finish the first 52 roads in the repair program ahead of schedule, in early 2010. But at the same time they are trying to add more roads that once were flooded to the repair list, including some in St. Tammany and Plaquemines Parishes.

"Obviously the highway is the main road through the parish, but all the side streets in the communities in the south end that had water on it for so long have greastb needs, and this program will definitely help us." Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said.

New Orleans Public Works Director Robert Mendoza said this is just one of the road projects now starting.

"You're going to start to see crews all over our minor streets,” Mendoza said. “You're going to start to see bond program projects get off the ground as well."