By Herbert Miller

Your friends decide to have a block party. The block is 5.4 mi. long and the party lasts 12 days. At one point you expect about 900,000 people to be on the street simultaneously. Your job is to set up for the crowd and manage the cleanup everyday. You call the party Mardi Gras.

This is the challenge facing the Jefferson Parish (County), LA, Public Works Department each year. How do we handle it? Discussed in this article are the efforts undertaken by the various divisions of public works and other government agencies in support of the Mardi Gras festivities.

East Bank parade route (approximately 5.39 mi.)

Jefferson Parish is adjacent to New Orleans, home of the country’s largest Mardi Gras celebration. The parish is divided by the Mississippi River into the East and West Banks. While the “Girls Gone Wild” scene is played out in New Orleans’s French Quarter, the Jefferson Parish Mardi Gras is more of a family-oriented event. There are 12 separate parades on the East Bank over a 12-day period and three more on the West Bank. Both natives and tourists crowd the entire length of the 5.4-mi. East Bank parade route. On Mardi Gras Eve many families camp out to secure the best viewing areas for the four hours of parades the following day.

The Krewes, as the Mardi Gras parading clubs are known, travel down Veterans Blvd., the busiest street in East Jefferson. They make side trips down two other high-trafficked streets, Severn Ave. and Bonnabel Blvd. (see the parade route map). Shopping centers at each end of the route permit the use of their parking lots for the staging and disbanding areas. Parades include floats, marching bands, dance clubs, VIPs in automobiles, and horses with riders. Masked float riders throw beads, cups, trinkets, toys, and other items to the crowd as the parade passes. Concession stands line various parts of the parade route with an ample supply of alcohol and soft drinks. Citizens bring their own supplies in coolers as well. (Glass containers are prohibited along the route.) Parents build seats on top of ladders for their smaller children while teenagers congregate in several areas. The professionalism and training of the law enforcement personnel, led by the sheriff’s office, mean amazingly few problems. In 2003, only 144 arrests occurred among the 2 million–plus people who cumulatively attended the parades. The problems that do occur are handled quickly with minimal disruption to the activities.

Planning for Mardi Gras is a year-round event. A few weeks after the last parade, all the agencies and departments involved meet for a debriefing to discuss problems and successes. Thirty-seven people participated in the 2003 postparade evaluation meeting. Issues are addressed and new guidelines put in place to prevent these newly identified problems from recurring. Recent issues include bans on Silly String, laser pointers, skateboards, stink bombs, and metallic streamers. Serious planning for the next year’s parades begins in April, 10 months before the first parade of the new season leaves the staging area.

Ready - Public Works Activities
Various divisions within Public Works begin preparing about six weeks before the parades begin. Parkways Department personnel trim trees to provide an 18-ft. clearance along the parade route, ensuring that every float can pass under them unobstructed. Trees along the routes used to transport the floats from the storage dens to the staging area are trimmed as well. In some cases it is necessary to temporarily remove smaller trees and replant them after the parade season’s end. To prevent the trees on the parade route from being damaged by the crowds, the staff surrounds them with plastic fencing. Field crews also remove anthills around the reviewing areas for the VIPs and families of Krewe members. To help with the cleanup, trash bins are placed in the disbanding area for Krewes to empty their trash; other trash bins are placed at reviewing stands, the sheriff’s office onsite control center, and various areas along the route where large amounts of garbage commonly are generated.

The Traffic Engineering Division places “enter” and “exit” signs at the temporary driveways for the viewing areas and stripes the “reserve parking” areas for temporary parking spaces at the reviewing stands. They determine and mark off barricade locations, both for placement during the parades and for storage afterward, so they do not interfere with traffic sight lines between parades. They also stripe U-turn routes for the floats on Veterans, Severn, and Bonnabel to provide a guide for the turns. The Signal Division of Traffic Engineering travels all parade routes and streets used to escort floats to the parade assembly area to ensure that all traffic lights, power-line crossings, tree limbs, and other potential obstructions provide at least an 18-ft. clearance. In some cases, traffic lights are temporarily raised to meet this requirement.

The Sign Division of Traffic Engineering prepares numerous special signs for the season, including the actual signs for the VIP parking sites. Every year this division also designs and installs new “No Parking – Mardi Gras Parade Route” signs. These signs are placed along the parade route, and when the parade season is over, the parish never has to pick them up - local citizens and tourists collect them. (Unfortunately, many are also taken during the season and the parish has to replace them.) Other signs include “No Throwing in This Area” at the assembly site, “No Throwing Past This Point” where the Krewes disband, various specialty signs for routing traffic around parades, and for emergency vehicle access points, and notices that vehicles parked in certain restricted areas will be towed.

The Streets Department has several responsibilities. At the assembly area, personnel erect barricades for the floats and block off the parking lot, creating one entrance and one exit. A temporary roll-over curb is installed in the parking lot for the floats, as well as safety fencing for the parking area and ring road around the site.

Streets Department personnel erect safety fencing in several locations at bridges along the parade route to prevent people from falling into the canals while watching the parade. Barrels with flashing lights are delivered to specific intersections, and galvanized chain link fencing is rented for use throughout the parade season. Streets are also inspected along the parade route and repairs made as needed. Any other requests from the sheriff’s office, such as curb cuts requested at specific locations, are met.

Portable light towers are brought to designated areas around the parade stands and at the four sheriff’s office video tower locations. Streets Department personnel make sure that the light towers have fuel and oil and are fully operational. A portable flashing arrow board is located as directed by the sheriff’s office. Barricades are placed in storage locations previously marked by the Traffic Engineering Division.

Electricians in the Public Works Department inspect all electrical outlets for safety, apply for electrical meters, and arrange inspections by the parish’s Inspection and Code Enforcement Department. They also connect power to the carnival office trailer and provide other services as needed.

The carnival office within the Citizen’s Service Department is busy all year long. Beginning in April of the year preceding the next parade season, staff reserve the stands and bleachers that are rented annually. Next, applications for parade permits, to be sent to parade captains, are prepared in May. Trailers are requisitioned in June and design begins on parking passes and stand tickets for the VIP areas. July through September finds the department’s personnel busy with procuring barricade and portable-toilet rental contracts, requisitioning trailers, preparing vendor information kits, making handbooks for parade captains and co-captains, and posting the parade calendar on the Internet. Vendor kits are sent out in October. Electrical locations are inspected for safety in November, additional cell phone requests are made, fence rental procedures begin, and handbooks are prepared for the various parish departments detailing their respective responsibilities.

December brings a flurry of activity to the carnival office: They order plaques for presentation to parade officials, prepare for distribution of passes to the viewing stands and VIP parking areas, complete electrical inspections, develop the barricade map, identify the locations for portable toilets, ensure that there is a current street sweeper contract, and arrange for utility hookups to the carnival office trailer. During January and early February, the department is busy making special ID cards for key personnel, coordinating the vendors, checking plaques for correct spelling of the honorees’ names, monitoring the construction of the reviewing stands, distributing ticket requests for the reviewing stands and VIP parking areas, ensuring all traffic control and parking signs are ready, typing up all parade permits, issuing press releases, and getting the list of people renting private barricades or portable toilets from vendors so that responsible parties can be contacted in case of a problem. There are dozens of other small details that must be handled as well.

There are other parish government offices with additional responsibilities. The parish-owned hospitals establish medical command posts in cooperation with the sheriff’s department, develop routes for emergency vehicles to use when they cannot cross parade routes, and provide ambulances along the routes. The fire department provides fire extinguishers for the carnival office trailer and inspects each float for compliance with safety requirements. The health unit inspects each float for compliance with all health requirements and makes certain that all parade vendors meet health standards. Even the animal shelter gets involved by ensuring that the parade horses are in good health.

The sheriff’s office coordinates the location of chain link fences along the route with the Traffic Engineering Division and prepares for security in the parade assembly and disbanding areas. It also arranges to man each intersection along the parade route and places numerous deputies at specific known sites along the route where crowd control problems are most likely to occur. During the carnival, the personnel assist in both the placement and removal of barricades at intersections before and after the parades and provide security for the parish’s barricade crew for removal of barricades at other locations along the parade route. Deputies also escort the crews that clean the streets after the parades and provide security at the reviewing stands.

The sheriff’s office has other duties as well. It establishes a lost-child station, an auto pound for storing illegally parked cars that are towed, and a command post. They escort the floats and trucks from the dens where they are stored to the parade routes, assist in lining up the floats at the assembly area, and meet other special requests for escorts as needed. Deputies assist the hospitals with drivers and escorts for emergency vehicles and coordinate all activities with medical personnel.

The Street Lighting Division inspects all street lights along the parade route to ensure that they are functional and will not interfere with the floats. In some cases, extra lights are installed as requested by the sheriff’s office. This division provides the portable light towers used at the reviewing stands and other locations along the route that are maintained by Streets Department employees. The parish telecommunications office obtains extra cell phones for carnival office personnel in addition to installing telephones in the carnival office trailer. They also provide phones lines for the emergency medical services bus provided by the hospital and located along the parade route.

The parish’s General Services Department provides garbage bags, mops, buckets, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies for the carnival office trailer.

Now we are ready for the Krewes and bands to set up.

Set
The cleanup crew sets up three hours before the parade begins. For Mardi Gras Day only, equipment includes 16 stake-body dump trucks for trash at the staging area and along the parade route, six street sweepers, two water trucks for spraying the roadway ahead of the street sweepers, a gas truck holding fuel for the blowers, two front-end loaders for picking up boxes and as much of the trash as they can gather along the parade routes, vehicles for the three equipment mechanics, a transport van for the leaf-blower relief crew, two tire trucks for repairing flats along the route, two vacuum trucks, a garbage truck, and enough superintendents to oversee the work.
Barricade crews begin working 90 minutes before the parade lines up. Assisted by sheriff’s deputies, they block off the assembly area parking lot and line up the barricades near the start of the parade, along Severn Ave. where the biggest crowds gather, and at each intersection of the parade route.

Parkways and Streets Departments’ personnel fill 30 ice barrels at various locations along the route for police officers, carnival officials, and the reviewing stands. If requested, they provide a bucket truck to adjust the lights at the reviewing stands. They place trash bins at the disbanding area for the Krewes and position another 54 bins at locations around the route. Traffic Engineering brings 50 traffic cones to route traffic at the reviewing stands.

The Krewe members arrive, the marching bands unload, and the crowds gather. Parade officials make sure that everything is ready. And now it’s time to start the festivities.

Party - It’s Mardi Gras Time

The parade begins. Sheriff’s officers, in cars and on motorcycles, come first to clear the street of parade-goers. Honorary officials, horsemen, and the like lead the procession. The parade captain’s float departs, followed by the royalty - the king, queen, dukes, and maids. Next the floats with the riders depart. The riders on all these floats, from the royalty to the Krewe members, are throwing baubles the entire route of the parade. Bands, dance teams, and marching clubs are interspersed between the floats. When all the parade participants have left the staging area, the cleanup crew goes to work.

The 10 people and two sweepers assigned to clean the staging area work with a front-end loader to put the boxes into a stake-body truck. They rake and sweep the site manually, picking up broken beads, plastic bags, and boxes that originally held the beads, plastic cups, and assorted garbage. By the time they are finished cleaning the staging area, the parade has passed the reviewing stands. The crew is transported there and begins the cleanup of that site.

Photo 1: Condition of Veterans Blvd. looking east toward Causeway Blvd. after truck parade and before Zeus Mardi Gras, March 4, 2003

Photo 2: Veterans Blvd. during Zeus Parade at the reviewing stands midway through the parade

Photo 3: Vacuum trucks at the end of cleanup. Note some people still are in the stands: The Krewe has its own following.

The remainder of the team follows the parade. The barricade crews remove the barricades so the personnel with blowers can clean the area behind the barricades and the streets can be opened to traffic as soon as the cleanup is finished. Sheriff’s deputies man the intersections to prevent vehicular traffic from entering until the cleanup is complete. The street is a mess, particularly on Mardi Gras Day. Photos 1 and 2 show the condition of the street near the end of Mardi Gras Day 2003.

The water and gas trucks join the procession. The water trucks wet the street, making it easier for the front-end loaders that follow to pick up any large debris and as much of the smaller stuff as they can.

A few dump trucks precede the front-end loaders, which pick up the collected material and place it in the dump trucks. (When the trash trucks are filled, they are escorted by the sheriff’s deputies to a disposal site, empty their load, and return to the parade route to continue their role in the cleanup.) The six-man box crew is next with the remaining dump trucks behind them. The box crew picks up boxes discarded by the riders along the route and any large debris missed by the front-end loaders. They place their collected trash into one of the dump trucks assigned specifically to the boxes. Behind them is a transport van that carries a dozen workers who are ready to replace the leaf-blowing crew when they tire. The first blower crew blows the spectator’s trash into the street and combines it with other debris already in the road. The street sweepers that follow pick up most of this material. The second blower crew pushes any remaining material into the street so the last set of sweepers can remove it. Finally, vacuum trucks move in procession for the final cleaning. The remaining trucks - the tire men and mechanics - complete this parade-after-the-parade. Photo 3 shows Veterans Blvd. near the reviewing stands as the vacuum trucks approach. Once complete, the streets appear as if the parade never passed. The next day Drainage Department personnel pick up the trash from the canal banks along the route.

After a street segment is cleaned, the street is open to traffic. (Later, after the traffic has cleared and the disbanding site is cleaned, the street sweepers make one more pass.) The cleaning scenario presented here is the procedure used for Mardi Gras Day. The scenario for the other parades is similar except there are fewer dump trucks and garbage trucks used since there is less garbage. Also, on Mardi Gras Day small crews do a partial cleaning of Severn and Bonnabel so the intersections can be opened while the main cleaning force stays on Veterans to permit its opening as soon as possible. For the other parades, the full cleanup crew follows the parade down Severn and Bonnabel. Amazingly, for all other parades the streets are usually opened within 20 minutes after the last float passes. Mardi Gras Day takes only slightly longer; in 2003 the street opened for traffic 32 minutes after the last float passed.

Table 1 is the chronology of the cleanup as it occurred at the reviewing stands at the end of Mardi Gras Day on March 4, 2003. On Mardi Gras Day 2003, approximately 7,100 people paraded in the Krewes of Argus and Zeus and the truck floats of Jefferson Trucks and Elks of Jeffersonians Trucks. It is estimated that they threw more than $3.5 million worth of beads, doubloons (plastic coins), cups, stuffed animals, balls, and other baubles.

The Mountain
How much trash is collected? How much does it cost? Why do we do it?
For all of the 2003 parade season, a total of 309 tons of solid waste was picked up and hauled to the landfill. The total for Mardi Gras Day alone was 99 tons. The parish owns the landfill so the tipping fees are small ($17.29/ton) compared to the costs paid by most local governments.

Table 2 shows the parish’s costs for the 2003 parade season; the total was $1,102,700. This cost includes expenses for all Mardi Gras parades on the East and West Banks as well as for the St. Patrick’s Day and Irish-Italian parades which occur a few weeks after Mardi Gras.

So why do we do it? The Mardi Gras season provides a tremendous tax boost to the area. Hotels and motels fill with out-of-town guests; riders buy beads and other throws; the citizens purchase King Cakes and take other picnic food to the parades. A report titled “An Economic Study of the Mardi Gras Celebration Within Jefferson Parish, 1997” provides the latest summary of the impact. James J. McLain, an economic consultant and the author of this report, received his research funds from the Jefferson Parish Council. Direct spending for Jefferson Parish Mardi Gras listed in the report included the categories of Official Krewe Spending from dues and other sources; Individual Krewe-Rider Spending; Other Krewe-Generated Government Revenues, such as permits and other fees; Parade Vendor Permit Fees; Crowd Spending by Jefferson Residents, for food and supplies; and Truck Parade Spending. The direct expenses for these categories totaled nearly $34 million. Spending in Jefferson Parish by those from outside the parish for hotels, food, and Mardi Gras–related activities exceeded another $14 million. The estimated grand total for all direct Mardi Gras spending in Jefferson Parish was $48.3 million. Taxes collected by parish government from direct Mardi Gras–related spending in Jefferson Parish were estimated at $2,261,000.

The revenue was 2.6 times the expenses (in 1997), even without adding in the regional multiplier for respending. When estimating the true economic impact, economists take into account the respending of these funds by the merchants and their employees. For the New Orleans region a multiplier of 2.1 is common. Thus, McLain estimated the tax revenue to Jefferson Parish for the 1997 Mardi Gras at $4,748,000.

Why else do we do it? It’s just plain fun.

Herbert Miller is director of public works at Jefferson Parish, LA. He wishes to thank Parish President Tim Coulon for the privilege of working with parish staff and attending the parades in the Parish President’s Reviewing Stand.

MSW - November/December 2003