Traffic has increased on Tchoupitoulas Street in Uptown New Orleans, mainly due to ongoing drainage projects in the neutral ground of three major riverbound/lakebound traffic arterties.

Drainage projects are always underway here in an ongoing attempt to deny sea level, but these seem large and lengthy even by New Orleans standards.

Work began on Napoleon Avenue in 2006 or 2007, shortly after Katrina’s 2005 landfall. The project has progressed in stages toward the Mississippi River. The final stage has now restricted Napoleon’s traffic flow to one lane in our neighborhood.

Another drainage project on Jefferson Avenue has constricted the flow of traffic there, and another project will soon begin on Louisiana Avenue.

By drainage project, I mean that they dig large ditches in the neutral ground of these picturesque old avenues.

Then they install huge culverts that will carry excess rainwater to pumping stations. Finally they cover it all with dirt, re-landscape the neutral ground and within a few years it is picturesque again with little hint the terrain was once so violated.

As I said, those are three major riverbound/lakebound traffic arteries. (Riverbound or lakebound and Uptown or Downtown replace the more confusing directional nouns north, south, east or west in this city where the sun rises over the West Bank.)

Motorists who need to go lakebound now crowd to Tchoupitoulas Street, paralleling the Mississippi River, to find other lakebound arteries, including Jackson Avenue and the Pontchartrain Expressway.

The walking route from our home to our favorite New Orleans supermarket involves crossing Tchoupitoulas.

Which has presented my non-driving wife with even more opportunities to observe the behavior of motorists at the wheels of their vehicles.

Her descriptions of us have not been flattering.