Safety upgrades have been made to the key New Orleans bridge link.
A series of improvements have been implemented for the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway that connects with New Orleans in Louisiana. The upgrade work cost US$100 million and has helped to improve road safety for vehicles using the crossing.
There were 180 crashes on the bridge in 2020, prior to the improvements being made. After the upgrades were carried out in 2021, there were 130 crashes. For 2022 the crash rate is expected to drop further to 120.
New guardrails have been installed on the dualled bridge, which measures 38.4km. While there have been incidents of vehicles hitting the guardrail, the incidents have been comparatively minor.