Interstate 10 in Louisiana
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Interstate 10 |
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Length: | 274.42[1] mi (441.64 km) | ||||||||
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Formed: | 1939 (planned); 1957 (numbered); ca. 1977 (completed) |
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Major junctions: |
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East end: | ![]() |
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Interstate 10, a major transcontinental Interstate Highway in the Southern U.S., runs across the southern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It passes through New Orleans and Baton Rouge as well as through smaller cities such as Lake Charles and Lafayette. It dips south of Lake Pontchartrain to serve New Orleans, while Interstate 12 provides a shortcut to the north of the lake for through traffic.
From Texas to Lafayette, I-10 parallels the older U.S. Highway 90 corridor. From Lafayette, the highway heads east-northeast toward Baton Rouge via the Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway, an 18.2-mile (nearly 30 km) bridge across the Atchafalaya River and its accompanying swamp. Between the two cities, I-10 parallels U.S. Highway 190, which runs from Opelousas to Baton Rouge.
In the Capital City, U.S. 190 continues east alongside Interstate 12 to Hammond and Slidell while I-10 turns southeastward and parallels U.S. Highway 61 (Airline Highway) to New Orleans. In the Crescent City, I-10 rejoins U.S. Highway 90 (and later U.S. Highway 11) as it heads toward Slidell. In Slidell, U.S. 11 continues northeastward toward Hattiesburg, Mississippi while I-10 and U.S. 90 turn eastward toward coastal Mississippi.
Major bridges on I-10 in Louisiana include the Sabine River bridge (ca. 1952), the Calcasieu River Bridge (1952), the Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway (1973), the Horace Wilkinson Bridge over the Mississippi River (1968), the Bonnet Carre Spillway (ca. 1972), the Industrial Canal Bridge (ca. 1960), the Twin Spans (ca. 1963), and the Pearl River bridge (ca. 1970).
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[edit] Major cities
Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs.[2]
- Beaumont, Texas
- Sulphur
- Lake Charles
- Jennings
- Crowley
- Rayne
- Lafayette
- Port Allen
- Baton Rouge
- Gonzales
- LaPlace
- Kenner
- Metairie
- New Orleans
- Slidell
- Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
[edit] Auxiliary routes
- Interstate 110 is a spur northward through downtown Baton Rouge toward the northern part of the city. It was not in the original plans, but was added in the 1960s to replace the cancelled Interstate 410.
- Interstate 210 is a bypass around the south side of Lake Charles. It was added in September 1955.[3]
- Interstate 310 is a spur from I-10 west of New Orleans south to U.S. Highway 90 (future Interstate 49). It was part of a longer Interstate 410 from 1969 to 1977.[4]
- A previous Interstate 310 was added in 1964 and cancelled in 1969. It would have run from I-10 east of downtown New Orleans south and southwest through the French Quarter to the Greater New Orleans Bridge.[4]
- The first Interstate 410 was a northern bypass of Baton Rouge along the Airline Highway (U.S. Highway 61/190) corridor. It was added in September 1955[3] and removed by the late 1960s.
- The second Interstate 410 was defined in 1969 as a southern bypass of New Orleans, as a sort of replacement for the cancelled Interstate 310. The southern section of I-410 was cancelled in 1977, and the west and east legs became Interstate 310 and Interstate 510, respectively.[4]
- Interstate 510 is a spur from I-10 in eastern New Orleans south to the Paris Road Bridge over the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway/(Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal). It was part of a longer Interstate 410 from 1969 to 1977.[4]
- Interstate 610 is a bypass for through traffic north of downtown New Orleans. It was added in September 1955.[3]
- Interstate 910 is a piece of future Interstate 49 from downtown New Orleans south and west to Marrero. The temporary designation was assigned by the Federal Highway Administration and American Association of State Highway Officials in 1999, but is not signed and has not been accepted by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
[edit] History

By the beginning of planning for the Interstate Highway System in 1939 (then called the Interregional Highway System), the Houston-New Orleans-Mobile corridor was part of the system. Preliminary plans took it along U.S. Highway 90 all the way through Louisiana, serving Lake Charles and Lafayette but not Baton Rouge.[5] By ca. 1943, it had been shifted to the north west of New Orleans, using the Louisiana Highway 12, U.S. Highway 190 and U.S. Highway 61 corridors, and serving Baton Rouge but not Lake Charles or Lafayette.[6] The 1947 plan shifted it to roughly the current alignment, including the long stretch of new corridor across the Atchafalaya Swamp.[7] The corridor was assigned the Interstate 10 designation in mid-1957.[8]
Prior to the gaining of federal funding for the Interstate System in the late 1950s, a toll road - the Acadian Thruway - had been proposed between Lafayette and a point near Gramercy on the Airline Highway (U.S. Highway 61). This would have provided a shorter route than I-10, bypassing Baton Rouge to the south. The Gramercy Bridge was later built along its planned alignment, with Louisiana Highway 3125 connecting to Gramercy, but no road extends west from the bridge across the Atchafalaya Swamp to Lafayette.

Interstate 12, serving as a bypass of New Orleans around the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, was not added until October 17, 1957. At the time, I-10 and Interstate 59 split in eastern New Orleans, with I-59 following present I-10 and I-10 following the U.S. Highway 90 corridor into Mississippi, and so I-12 only ran to I-59 north of Slidell.[9] By the mid-1960s, the routes had been realigned to their current configuration, with I-12 and I-59 both ending at I-10 near Slidell.[10]
The Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway opened in March 1973.[11]
[edit] Exit list
Parish | Location | Exit # | Destinations | Notes | |
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Calcasieu | 1 | Sabine River Turnaround | westbound exit and eastbound entrance | ||
4 | ![]() ![]() |
U.S. 90 joins westbound and leaves eastbound | |||
7 | LA 3063 - Vinton | ||||
8 | LA 108 - Vinton | ||||
20 | LA 27 Business - Sulphur; Cameron | ||||
21 | |||||
23 | LA 108 - Industries; Sulphur | ||||
25 | ![]() ![]() |
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26 | ![]() ![]() |
U.S. 90 joins eastbound and leaves westbound | |||
27 | LA 378 - Westlake | ||||
29 | ![]() ![]() |
eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |||
Lake Charles | 30A | To ![]() |
westbound exit and eastbound entrance | ||
30B | Ryan Street; Business District | westbound exit and eastbound entrance | |||
31A | ![]() ![]() |
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31B | Shattuck Street | westbound exit and eastbound entrance | |||
31B | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
eastbound exit and westbound entrance; U.S. 90 joins westbound and leaves eastbound | |||
32 | Opelousas Street | ||||
33 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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34 | ![]() ![]() |
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36 | LA 397 - Creole; Cameron | ||||
43 | Louisiana Highway 383:LA 383 - Iowa | ||||
Jefferson Davis | 44 | ![]() |
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48 | LA 101 - Lacassine | ||||
54 | LA 99 - Welsh | ||||
59 | LA 395 - Roanoke | ||||
64 | ![]() |
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65 | LA 97 - Evangeline; Jennings | ||||
Acadia | 72 | Egan | |||
76 | LA 91 - Iota; Estherwood | ||||
80 | ![]() |
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82 | LA 1111 - East Crowley | ||||
87 | ![]() |
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92 | ![]() |
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Lafayette | 97 | ![]() |
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Lafayette | 100 | LA 3184 - Ambassador Caffery Parkway | |||
101 | ![]() |
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103A | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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103B | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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104 | Louisiana Avenue; Johnston Street | ||||
Saint Martin | 109 | LA 328 - Breaux Bridge | |||
115 | LA 347 - Cecilia; Henderson | The Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway begins east of here. | |||
121 | LA 105/LA 3177 - Butte La Rose | ||||
Iberville | 127 | Louisiana Highway 975 - Whiskey Bay | |||
135 | Louisiana Highway 3000 - Ramah; Maringouin | The Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway ends here | |||
139 | LA 77 - Rosedale; Grosse Tete | ||||
West Baton Rouge | 151 | LA 415/To ![]() |
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153 | ![]() |
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Mississippi River - Horace Wilkinson Bridge | |||||
East Baton Rouge | Baton Rouge | 155A | ![]() |
eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |
155B | ![]() ![]() |
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156C | Louise Street | westbound exit and eastbound entrance | |||
156A | Washington Street | eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |||
156B | Dalrymple Drive; LSU | no eastbound entrance | |||
157A | Perkins Road | eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |||
157B | LA 427 - Acadian Thruway; LSU | ||||
158 | College Drive | ||||
159 | ![]() ![]() |
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160 | LA 3064 - Essen Lane | ||||
162A | LA 1248 - Bluebonnet Road | ||||
162B | Picardy Avenue | ||||
163 | LA 3246 - Siegen Lane | ||||
166 | ![]() |
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Ascension | 173 | ![]() |
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177 | ![]() |
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179 | ![]() |
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182 | ![]() |
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187 | ![]() ![]() |
eastbound exit and westbound entrance; also known as Airline Highway | |||
187 | ![]() ![]() |
westbound exit and eastbound entrance | |||
Saint James | 194 | LA 641 South - Gramercy | |||
Saint John the Baptist | 206 | LA 3188 South - LaPlace | |||
209 | ![]() To ![]() ![]() |
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210 | ![]() ![]() |
westbound exit and eastbound entrance | |||
Lake Pontchartrain - Bonnet Carré Spillway | |||||
Saint Charles | 220 | ![]() ![]() |
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Jefferson | Kenner | 221 | Loyola Drive | ||
223AB | ![]() |
Eastbound exit and entrance | |||
223A | New Orleans International Airport | Westbound exit only; Airport traffic only | |||
223B | ![]() |
Westbound exit and entrance | |||
Metairie | 224 | Power Boulevard | westbound exit and eastbound entrance | ||
225 | Veterans Boulevard | ||||
226 | Clearview Parkway; Huey P. Long Bridge | ||||
228 | Causeway Boulevard; Mandeville | ||||
229 | Bonnabel Boulevard | ||||
230 | ![]() ![]() |
No westbound exit | |||
17th Street Canal - 17th Street Canal Bridge | |||||
Orleans | New Orleans | 231B | Florida Boulevard; West End Boulevard | Westbound exit only; entrances from Pontchartrain Boulevard | |
231A | City Park Avenue; Metairie Road | ||||
232 | ![]() |
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234A | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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234B | Poydras Street - Superdome | eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |||
234 C | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Westbound exit and east/west entrances | |||
235B | Canal Street; Superdome | westbound exit; eastbound entrance from northbound Tulane Avenue | |||
235A | Orleans Avenue; Vieux Carre | ||||
236A | Esplanade Avenue | eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |||
236B | ![]() |
eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |||
236C | Saint Bernard Avenue | westbound exit and eastbound entrance | |||
237 | ![]() |
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238B | ![]() ![]() |
westbound exit and eastbound entrance | |||
238A | Franklin Avenue | westbound exit and eastbound entrance | |||
239 | Louisa Street; Almonaster Boulevard | Westbound exit and entrance | |||
239A | Louisa Street North; Almonaster Boulevard East | Eastbound exit and entrance | |||
239B | Louisa Street South; Almonaster Boulevard West | Eastbound exit and entrance | |||
240A | Downman Road | eastbound exit and westbound entrance | |||
Inner Harbor Navigational Canal - I-10 High Rise Bridge | |||||
240B | ![]() ![]() |
Eastbound exit and entrance | |||
240B | ![]() ![]() |
Westbound entrance and exit | |||
241 | Morrison Road | ||||
242 | Crowder Boulevard | ||||
244 | Read Boulevard | ||||
245 | Bullard Avenue | ||||
246A | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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246B | ![]() ![]() |
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248 | Michoud Boulevard | ||||
251 | Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge | CLOSED as of January 2007, presumably due to Hurricane Katrina damage. | |||
254 | ![]() |
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Lake Pontchartrain - Twin Spans | |||||
Saint Tammany | 261 | Oak Harbor Boulevard - Eden Isles | |||
Slidell | 263 | LA 433 - Slidell | |||
Future exit | ![]() ![]() |
Currently under construction | |||
266 | ![]() |
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267A | ![]() ![]() |
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267B | ![]() ![]() |
[edit] See also
- Airline Highway
- Acadian Thruway
[edit] References
- ^ Louisiana Interstate Highway Log
- ^ List of Control Cities for Use in Guide Signs on Interstate Highways
- ^ a b c Interstate System urban routes designated in September 1955
- ^ a b c d Richard F. Weingroff, The Second Battle of New Orleans - Vieux Carré Riverfront Expressway (I-310)
- ^ Proposed Interregional Highway System, 1939
- ^ Routes of the Recommended Interregional Highway System, ca. 1943
- ^ National System of Interstate Highways, August 2, 1947
- ^ Official Route Numbering for the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, August 14, 1957
- ^ Routes to Be Added to the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, October 17, 1957
- ^ The National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, ca. 1963
- ^ Richard F. Weingroff, Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways - Engineering Marvels
Preceded by Texas |
Interstate 10 Louisiana |
Succeeded by Mississippi |