NEW ORLEANS — Wednesday morning, Westbank residents began hearing about a water main break on Claiborne Ave. which had shut down traffic and flooded the major roadway through New Orleans.
The news came with a sense of Déjà Vu.
On May 3, less than a month before, a 114-year-old water main cracked under Claiborne Ave. in a residential Uptown neighborhood, forcing a boil water advisory that lasted for longer than 48 hours.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who had been trying to broker a deal to get the city of New Orleans additional funding for infrastructure, especially to shore up the troubled sewerage and water system, sent out a series of Tweets that morning.
Last week, on May 15, city officials unveiled a map showing outdated water pipes throughout the city of New Orleans.
According to industry standards, water pipes -- which have a life expectancy between 50 and 75 years -- should be replaced by 50. In New Orleans, large sections of the city have water infrastructure more than a century old.
The map shows more than 500 miles of water pipes that were installed before 1920.
Sewerage and Water Board officials have not said how old the pipe that burst Wednesday was.