Sewerage and Water Board meet with Decatur businesses to answer questions about project completion

July 1, 2026 - 09:04

The floor was open for questions at Turtle Bay on Wednesday, where a crowd of frustrated business owners and employees pressed the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO) for a clear answer on when the barricades will finally come down. The meeting, held inside the popular Decatur Street bar, was called to address growing tensions over a construction project that has dragged on for months, cutting foot traffic and hurting sales along a key stretch of the French Quarter.

Owners described a steep drop in revenue, with some saying they have lost nearly half their usual business since the work began. They asked why the timeline kept slipping and what was being done to speed things up. SWBNO representatives explained that unexpected underground conditions, including old pipes and unstable soil, had caused repeated delays. They promised that the main phase of the work would be finished by late summer, with full street restoration to follow.

Not everyone left satisfied. Several attendees said they had heard similar promises before and saw no real change. The board said it would hold follow-up meetings and assign a single point of contact for each block to improve communication. For now, Decatur Street remains a maze of orange barrels and plywood, and the businesses along it are waiting for the noise and dust to end.