Aviation: New Orleans airport reconstruction completed in nick of time

Architectural Record reports that the reconstruction of an airfield may have been completed in the nick of time.

Officials at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong Airport were finishing an $83 million airfield reconstruction program last week before Hurricane Katrina hit.

Airport director Roy Williams had prioritized repaving and reconstruction of the runways because: "we'd known the runways' elevation had to be raised in case of a hurricane."

It is believed the repaving may have made all the difference in enabling the airport's two runways to reopen for emergency relief operations.

Navigational aids on the runways are damaged, and the Federal Aviation Administration "is working feverishly" to restore them.

At the moment, military pilots flying relief aircraft are landing visually. Powered by emergency generators, the terminal housed some 800 refugees Thursday, Rodriguez estimated. The mostly wind-caused damages to the terminal will cost at least $40 million.