Interstate 610 was added to the Interstate system in 1964 with Interstate 10 in the city of New Orleans.1 The freeway provides a bypass route for Interstate 10 through New Orleans, traveling east-west north of the Interstate 10 dog leg into downtown. The freeway undulates through City Park and the Gentilly neighborhood of the city, traveling partially at-grade and partially on an elevated viaduct.
New sound walls installed in conjunction with the Interstate 10/610 interchange project of 1999-2001 reveal the extend of flood levels during the September 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster. The interchange between the two freeways and adjacent Pontchartrain Boulevard was vastly underwater after the levees broke from the storm. Photo taken 06/10/06.
The only Interstate 610 Louisiana shield, and one of a few rare Interstate 10 Louisiana shields, can be found on Canal Boulevard northbound at the Interstate 610 eastbound on-ramp. The shields are displayed next to a large oak street in a rustic residential neighborhood
in the northwestern part of the city. Heavy rains were falling at the time of these photographs from thunderstorms associated with a small disturbance over south-central Louisiana. The viaduct in the background is Interstate 610 within the City Park vicinity. Photo taken 08/12/02.
Franklin Avenue northbound as it passes underneath the Interstate 610 viaduct and its partial "Y" interchange with Interstate 10. A diamond interchange joins Franklin Avenue with Interstate 610 west and Interstate 10 east. Photo taken 06/10/06.
An Interstate 610 shield directs motorists onto the westbound on-ramp for west New Orleans, Metairie, and Baton Rouge. To the right is the eastbound on-ramp to New Orleans East and Slidell. Franklin Avenue northbound continues into the Gentilly neighborhood of the city ahead, meeting U.S. 90 & Louisiana 3021 (Gentilly Avenue) in 12 blocks. Photo taken 06/10/06.
