Among the challenges the project team faced were unprecedented flood threat and maintaining critical functions during construction.

When the under-construction Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans partially collapsed on Oct. 12, the initial response was one of search and rescue, as well as a dramatic effort to secure the site that led to the controlled demolition of two tower cranes.

Two unstable tower cranes at the site of the New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel collapse were brought down on Oct. 20 in a controlled demolition, but work to stabilize the structure is far from over.

Two tower cranes at the site of the New Orleans hotel collapse are in worse shape than initially thought, forcing responders to reconsider how to dismantle them. An upper section of a hotel under construction in New Orleans partially collapsed on Saturday, Oct. 12, killing three and injuring dozens.

New Orleans is facing the biggest test of its post-Katrina hurricane protection system as the region is bracing for up to 20 inches of rain from Barry.

Construction is progressing on a $50-million project that will convert traffic lanes and sidewalks into a 7.5-acre linear park in front of the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. But to make that work, the project team must follow detailed plans to address concerns about traffic patterns, existing utilities and drainage.

In a few weeks, workers will begin to dismantle the temporary pumps and floodgates that have been in place along the New Orleans lakefront since the year after Hurricane Katrina.