Airline Highway

Airline Highway

Route of the Airline Highway highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by Louisiana DOTD
Length	115.6 mi[1] (186.0 km)
Existed	1925 (planned); 1927 (first section opened); 1953 (last section opened)–present
Component highways
Major junctions
Southeast end
Northwest end
Location
Country	United States
State	Louisiana
Parishes	Orleans, Jefferson, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. James, Ascension, East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee
Highway system

Airline Highway is a divided highway in the U.S. state of Louisiana, built in stages between 1925 and 1953 to bypass the older Jefferson Highway. It runs 115.6 miles (186.0 km),[1] carrying U.S. Highway 61 from New Orleans northwest to Baton Rouge and U.S. Highway 190 from Baton Rouge west over the Mississippi River on the Huey P. Long Bridge. US 190 continues west towards Opelousas on an extension built at roughly the same time.

The highway was named “Airline” because it runs relatively straight on a new alignment, rather than alongside the winding Mississippi River. (Compare with the similar term air-line railroad.) The name later became even more fitting, as both Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport were built along the highway. Airline Highway also runs close to the site of the old Baton Rouge airfield (near the intersection of Airline and Florida Boulevard, now a park and government office complex), which brings it within blocks of the similarly named Airport Avenue and Airway Drive.

History[edit]

The highway’s origin is famously identified with Governor Huey P. Long, who advocated for a modern highway system in Louisiana. Though the project was underway when Long took office, most of its initial construction was completed during his administration. The Airline Highway was considered a pet project of Long’s as it reduced the length of his journey between the capitol building in Baton Rouge and the bars and establishments in New Orleans, namely The Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel.[2] Originally, Airline Highway was a two-lane road that ran from Prairieville to Shrewsbury. The first section, running between Williams Boulevard in Kenner and Shrewsbury Road, opened in June 1927.[3] It was begun by the Jefferson Parish Police Jury as a local road and incorporated into the plan for Airline Highway during construction.[4] The remainder of the highway was built between 1928 and 1933 by the Louisiana Highway Commission with federal aid, as the road would carry US 61 upon completion.

The section north of the spillway was officially opened on July 4, 1933,[5] and the section on the south side followed three weeks later.[6] (Various sections had been temporarily opened to traffic beginning in October 1931.) Completion of the bridge over the Bonnet Carré Spillway was delayed until 1935, necessitating a detour over the Jefferson Highway (River Road) via temporary gravel roads along the spillway guide levees.[7] The spillway bridge was opened to traffic on September 28, 1935[8] and dedicated on December 13.[9]

At this time, traffic was routed from Prairieville into Baton Rouge over the Jefferson Highway (today’s LA 73). On the New Orleans end, travelers had the option to continue on Airline Highway and follow Metairie Road (the original route of Jefferson Highway) into town or transfer to the Jefferson Highway (today’s LA 48) at Kenner and follow the direct connection onto South Claiborne Avenue completed in 1928.

The first improvements to the Airline Highway began in 1935 and consisted of widening and re-surfacing the Kenner-Shrewsbury link built a decade earlier. The new four-lane section from Williams Boulevard to Haring Road opened in October 1937.[10] The new four- and six-lane section from Haring Road to Labarre Road opened in December 1938.[11] The latter project included a slight re-alignment and extension on the Shrewsbury end. (Present-day Robertson Street is a remnant of the old alignment.) The eight-lane extension into Tulane Avenue (reached by a now-demolished six-lane bridge over the former New Basin Canal) was officially opened on August 26, 1940.[12]

Also in 1940, the Old Mississippi River Bridge opened in Baton Rouge. With this occurrence, a 7.9 mile bypass was built around the city that went to the Nesser Overpass, opening to traffic in July 1941—this bypass was part of Airline Highway, but it was not connected to the rest of the highway until 1953. A further extension continued west to the Atchafalaya Bridge at Krotz Springs. The remainder of the highway was multilaned in sections during the 1940s and the 1950s. For a short time in that decade, it was the longest toll-free four-lane highway in the nation, as the multilaned portion ran 124 miles from the Atchafalaya River to New Orleans.[13] The spillway bridge carried four very narrow lanes of traffic (often resulting in accidents) until 1984 when a parallel bridge was constructed.[14]

The majority of the New Orleans-Baton Rouge section was built parallel to the Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company, which was itself built later than the slightly longer Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad. The former Louisiana Railway, now part of the Kansas City Southern Railway, crosses the Huey Long Bridge with the highway and splits to the northwest towards Shreveport; the extension to Opelousas parallels the New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railway (later part of the Missouri Pacific Railroad).

Originally US Highways 65 and 51 were cosigned to Airline (65 the entire length, and 51 from LaPlace to New Orleans). In 1951, Louisiana truncated the route lengths, and the highway, with the exception of a portion in north Baton Rouge, is signed as US 61.

In an effort to clean up the highway’s notorious history due to the seedy hotels and motels that once lined it, the portion in Jefferson Parish has been renamed Airline Drive.

Baton Rouge bypass[edit]

The portion of the Airline Highway north and east of downtown Baton Rouge carries U.S. Highway 61 and U.S. Highway 190 around downtown, and includes several interchanges. The bypass was designated U.S. Highway 61/190 Bypass from 1957 to 1963,[citation needed] after which US 61 and US 190 were moved onto it, and their old routes through downtown became US 61 Business/US 190 Business. The bypass and business routes originally intersected in a traffic circle, which was replaced in 1963 by a cloverleaf interchange.

In the original 1955 plan for urban Interstate Highways, numbered by 1959, the Baton Rouge bypass was designated Interstate 410; it would have connected to Interstate 10 on both ends (as I-10 would have used the US 190 corridor immediately west of Baton Rouge, still crossing the Atchafalaya Swamp in its present location). The route was cancelled by the end of the 1960s, and the number was later reused for another I-410 (which itself was cancelled in 1977).

Major intersections[edit]

Parish	Location	mi[1]	km	Destinations	Notes
Orleans	New Orleans	0.0	0.0		Southeastern terminus; south end of US 61 concurrency
0.1– 0.4	0.16– 0.64		Exit 232 on I-10
Jefferson	Metairie	2.7– 3.2	4.3– 5.1		Interchange; northern terminus of LA 3046 (not signed)
3.2	5.1		Western terminus of LA 611-9; to Metairie Road
3.7	6.0		At Cleary Avenue
4.3	6.9
6.2	10.0		Northern terminus of LA 3154
6.4	10.3		Northern terminus of LA 3155 (not signed)
Kenner	8.3	13.4		Southern terminus of LA 49
St. Charles	St. Rose	12.1	19.5		Northern terminus of LA 50
12.2– 13.5	19.6– 21.7		Exit 2 on I-310
Destrehan	13.8	22.2		Northern terminus of LA 626
Norco	17.8	28.6		Northern terminus of LA 627
18.9	30.4		Western terminus of LA 48
	19.6– 20.8	31.5– 33.5	U.S. 61 Bonnet Carré Spillway Bridge
Montz	21.2	34.1		Eastern terminus of LA 628
St. John the Baptist	LaPlace	22.1	35.6		Northern terminus of LA 3217
23.2	37.3		Northern terminus of LA 636-1
24.6	39.6		Eastern terminus of LA 44
24.7	39.8		Southern terminus of US 51
25.9	41.7		Southern terminus of LA 3188
Reserve	28.3	45.5		Northern terminus of LA 3179
29.0	46.7		Northern terminus of LA 53
29.8	48.0		Northern terminus of LA 637
Garyville	33.4	53.8		Northern terminus of LA 54
St. James		36.9	59.4		LA 3213 southbound leads to Gramercy Bridge (not signed)
Gramercy	38.2	61.5		Northern terminus of LA 3274
Ascension		45.7– 46.4	73.5– 74.7		Exit 187 on I-10
	46.5	74.8		Western terminus of LA 3140
Sorrento	50.1	80.6
Brittany	52.3	84.2		Eastern terminus of LA 30; southern terminus of LA 431
Gonzales	54.1	87.1		Eastern terminus of LA 939
54.5	87.7		Eastern terminus of LA 3038
54.8	88.2
55.7	89.6
	56.6	91.1		Eastern terminus of LA 74
	57.7	92.9
Prairieville	60.6	97.5		South end of LA 73 concurrency
60.7	97.7		North end of LA 73 concurrency
61.9	99.6		South end of LA 42 concurrency
62.9	101.2
East Baton Rouge		65.2	104.9		North end of LA 42 concurrency; western terminus of LA 948
Baton Rouge	68.9	110.9		South end of LA 73 concurrency
69.2	111.4		Eastern terminus of LA 3246
	69.7– 69.9	112.2– 112.5		Interchange; northbound exit and southbound entrance; North end of LA 73 concurrency
Baton Rouge	71.0– 71.6	114.3– 115.2		Exit 2A–B on I-12
71.9	115.7
73.5– 73.8	118.3– 118.8		Interchange; east end of US 190 concurrency; Southeastern terminus of US 61/190 Business
75.4– 75.7	121.3– 121.8		Interchange
78.7– 79.4	126.7– 127.8		Interchange; no access to and from I-110.
79.1– 79.8	127.3– 128.4		Exit 5B on I-110; to Metro Airport and St. Francisville (secondary signage)
80.1– 80.4	128.9– 129.4		Interchange; north end of US 61 concurrency; northwestern terminus of US 61/190 Business; to Southern University
East Baton Rouge– West Baton Rouge line		81.3– 82.5	130.8– 132.8	Huey P. Long Bridge over Mississippi River
West Baton Rouge		82.5– 82.7	132.8– 133.1		Interchange; east end of LA 1 concurrency
Lobdell	85.2	137.1		Interchange
85.8	138.1		Westbound entrance and eastbound exit; Northern terminus of LA 415 Spur
Westover	86.6	139.4		Northern terminus of LA 1145
	90.5	145.6		Southern terminus of LA 983
Erwinville	95.2	153.2
Pointe Coupee		97.2	156.4		West end of LA 1 concurrency
Torbert	100.4	161.6		Southern terminus of LA 978
Livonia	104.4	168.0		Southern terminus of LA 78; northern terminus of LA 411
104.5	168.2
Blanks	106.9	172.0		Northern terminus of LA 976
Lottie	109.4	176.1
	110.8– 114.4	178.3– 184.1	Bridge over Morganza Spillway
	115.4	185.7		Interchange; northern terminus of LA 975
	115.6	186.0		Northwestern terminus; west end of US 190 conurrency; At Atchafalaya River Bridge
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References[edit]

1. ^ a b c Google (July 14, 2013). “Overview Map of Airline Highway” (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
2. ^ Mahne, Theodore P. (June 30, 2009). “Huey Long just one chapter of storied history of New Orleans’ Roosevelt Hotel, which reopens Wednesday”. The Times-Picayune. New Orleans, LA. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
3. ^ “News of Metairie and the highway”. The Times-Picayune. New Orleans. June 1, 1927. p. 36.
4. ^ “Airline route to state capital is feasible project”. The Times-Picayune. New Orleans. July 19, 1925. p. 4–1.
5. ^ “Opening of airline route announced”. The Times-Picayune. New Orleans. July 4, 1933. p. 1.
6. ^ “Road to capital cut by opening of new section”. The Times-Picayune. New Orleans. July 29, 1933. pp. 2–11.
7. ^ “Driving distance to Baton Rouge will be reduced”. The Times-Picayune. New Orleans. May 1, 1935. p. 1.
8. ^ “Spillway bridge may be ready for use on Saturday”. The Times-Picayune. New Orleans. September 24, 1935. p. 1.
9. ^ “Throng to rally at Bonnet Carre Spillway today”. The Times-Picayune. New Orleans. December 13, 1935. p. 1.
10. ^ “Shrewsbury-Kenner Air Line Highway link open to traffic”. The Times-Picayune. New Orleans. October 30, 1937. p. 1.
11. ^ “Short-cut road on Baton Rouge route is opened”. The Times-Picayune. New Orleans. December 20, 1938. p. 3.
12. ^ “Air-Line Highway bridge ceremony slated Monday”. The Times-Picayune New Orleans States. New Orleans. August 25, 1940. p. 1.
13. ^ “Nation’s longest toll-free four-lane highway nearing finish”. The Times-Picayune New Orleans States. New Orleans. August 17, 1952. p. 2.
14. ^ “New bridge over spillway opens quietly”. The Times-Picayune/The States-Item. New Orleans. March 30, 1984. pp. 1–26.

External links[edit]

Route map:

• Transportation in New Orleans
• Roads in Louisiana
• Transportation in Ascension Parish, Louisiana
• Transportation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Transportation in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
• Transportation in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
• Transportation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana
• Transportation in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana
• Transportation in St. James Parish, Louisiana
• Transportation in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana
• Transportation in the New Orleans metropolitan area
• Transportation in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
• U.S. Route 51
• U.S. Route 61
• U.S. Route 65