Airline Highway

Airline Highway is a divided highway in the U.S. state of Louisiana, built in the 1920s to 1940s to bypass the older Jefferson Highway. It carries 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 because it runs relatively straight on a new alignment (see airline), rather than alongside the winding Mississippi River. The name became quite fitting, as both Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport are along the highway. Airline Highway also runs close to the site of the old Baton Rouge airfield (near the intersection of Airline and Florida Blvd., now a park and government office complex), which brings it within blocks of the similarly named Airport Ave and Airway Drive.

History

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. 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.^[1] It was begun by the Jefferson Parish Police Jury as a local road and incorporated into the plan for Airline Highway during construction.^[2] 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^[3], and the section on the south side followed three months later.^[4] (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.^[5] The spillway bridge was opened to traffic on September 28, 1935 and dedicated on December 13.^[6]

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.^[7] The new four- and six-lane section from Haring Road to Labarre Road opened in December 1938.^[8] 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.^[9]

Also in 1940, the northern end of the highway was extended into Baton Rouge with the opening of the Old Mississippi River Bridge. 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.^[10] The spillway bridge carried four very narrow lanes of traffic (often resulting in accidents) until 1984 when a parallel bridge was constructed.^[11]

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

Sign showing the intersection of U.S. Highway 61 (Airline Highway) at U.S. Highway 51 in LaPlace, Louisiana

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,^[12] after which US 61 and US 190 were moved onto it, and their old routes through downtown became U.S. Highway 61/190 Business. The bypass and business routes originally intersected in a traffic circle, which was replaced in 1967 by a cloverleaf interchange.

1955 Interstate Highway plans, showing the Baton Rouge bypass on the Airline Highway as an urban route (numbered I-410 by 1959)

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 Interstate 410).

Junction List

Parish	Location	Mile	Junction	Notes
Orleans	New Orleans	0.0	South Carrollton Avenue	South/east end of Airline Highway; south end of US 61 concurrency
		0.2	I-10 east to US 90 Bus. – Westbank I-10 west – N.O. Int'l Airport, Baton Rouge	Interchange
Jefferson	Metairie	2.8	LA 3262 (Labarre Road/North Labarre Road)
		3.0	North Causeway Boulevard to Lake Pontchartrain Causeway LA 3046 south (Causeway Boulevard) to US 90	Interchange; northern terminus of LA 3046
		3.3	LA 611-9 (Metairie Road) LA 3261 (Shrewsbury Road)	Southern terminus of LA 611-9; northern terminus of LA 3261
		3.8	LA 3139 (Earhart Expressway) at Cleary Avenue	Access to LA 3139 south only
		4.1	LA 48 (Central Avenue)	Eastern terminus of LA 48
		4.3	LA 3152 north (Clearview Parkway) LA 3152 south (South Clearview Parkway) to LA 3139 (Earhart Expressway)
		6.3	LA 3154 (Hickory Avenue)	Northern terminus of LA 3154
		6.4	LA 3155 (Little Farms Avenue)	Northern terminus of LA 3155
	Kenner	8.3	LA 49 north (Williams Boulevard) to I-10	Southern terminus of LA 49
		9.3	Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
St. Charles	St. Rose	12.2	LA 50 (Almedia Road)	Northern terminus of LA 50
		13.0	I-310 – Boutte, Baton Rouge	Interchange
	Destrehan	13.9	LA 626 (St. Rose Avenue)	Northern terminus of LA 626
	Norco	17.8	LA 627 (Prospect Avenue)	Northern terminus of LA 627
		19.0	LA 48 (Apple Street)	Western terminus of LA 48
	Montz	21.2	LA 628 (CC Road)	Eastern terminus of LA 628
St. John the Baptist	LaPlace	22.1	LA 3217	Eastern terminus of LA 3217
		24.6	LA 44 (Main Street)	Eastern terminus of LA 44
		24.7	US 51 north to I-10 to I-55	Southern terminus of US 51
		25.7	LA 3224 (Hemlock Street)	Northern terminus of LA 3224
		26.0	LA 3188 north (Belle Terre Boulevard) to I-10	Southern terminus of LA 3188
		26.1	LA 3223 (Elm Street)	Northern terminus of LA 3223
	Reserve	28.4	LA 3179 (East 22nd Street)	Northern terminus of LA 3179
		29.1	LA 53 (Central Avenue)	Northern terminus of LA 53
		29.8	LA 637 (West 10th Street)	Northern terminus of LA 637
	Garyville	33.4	LA 54	Northern terminus of LA 54
St. James	Gramercy	36.9	LA 641 LA 3213 south to Gramercy Bridge	Northern terminus of LA 3213
		38.2	LA 3274 (North Airline Avenue)	Northern terminus of LA 3274
Ascension		46.3	I-10 – Baton Rouge, New Orleans
		46.6	LA 3140	Southern terminus of LA 3140
	Sorrento	50.2	LA 22 – Donaldsonville, Ponchatoula
	Gonzales	52.4	LA 431 LA 30	Southern terminus of LA 431; eastern terminus of LA 30
		54.2	LA 939 (South Purpera Avenue)	Eastern terminus of LA 939
		54.6	LA 3038 (East Cornerview Street)	Eastern terminus of LA 3038
		54.9	LA 429 (Weber City Road/East Ascension Street)
		55.7	LA 44 (North Burnside Avenue)
		56.7	LA 74	Eastern terminus of LA 74
		57.1	LA 934 (Black Bayou Road)	Western terminus of LA 934
		57.8	LA 621
	Prairieville	59.0	LA 931 (Germany Road)	Western terminus of LA 931
		59.1	LA 930 (Daigle Road)	Southern terminus of LA 930
		60.3	LA 929	Western terminus of LA 929
		60.8	LA 73 (Old Jefferson Highway)
		62.0	LA 42	South end of LA 42 concurrency
		62.9	LA 427 (Perkins Road)
East Baton Rouge	Baton Rouge	65.2	LA 42 LA 948 (Highland Road)	North end of LA 42 concurrency; western terminus of LA 948
		68.9	LA 73 (Jefferson Highway)	South end of LA 73 concurrency
		69.2	LA 3246 (Siegen Lane)	Northern terminus of LA 3246
		69.9	LA 73 (Jefferson Highway)	Interchange; north end of LA 73 concurrency
		71.3	I-12 – Hammond, Baton Rouge	Interchange
		72.0	LA 426 (Old Hammond Highway)
		73.7	US 190 east (Florida Boulevard) – Hammond US 61 Bus. north (Florida Boulevard) / US 190 Bus. west – Baton Rouge, Livingston	Interchange; east end of US 190 concurrency
		75.6	LA 37 (Greenwell Springs Road) – Greensburg	Interchange
		79.0	LA 67 (Plank Road) – Baker-Zachary, Clinton	Interchange
		79.5	I-110 – Baton Rouge, Natchez – Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport	Interchange
		80.3	US 61 north (Scenic Highway) – Scotlandville US 61 Bus. south / US 190 Bus. east – Baton Rouge	Interchange; north end of US 61 concurrency
Huey P. Long Bridge over Mississippi River
West Baton Rouge	Port Allen	82.3	LA 986 (North River Road)	LA 986 passes underneath; access to US 190/Airline Highway via LA 1 interchange
		82.7	LA 1 south to I-10 – Port Allen	Interchange; east end of LA 1 concurrency
		85.4	LA 415 south (North Lobdell Highway/Plantation Avenue) to I-10	Interchange
		86.6	LA 1145 (Calumet Road)	Northern terminus of LA 1145
		90.6	LA 983 (Bueche Road)	Southern terminus of LA 983
		95.2	LA 413 (Poydras Bayou Road)
Pointe Coupee		97.2	LA 1 north (Wye Road) – New Roads, Marksville	West end of LA 1 concurrency
		100.3	LA 978 (Bigman Lane)	Southern terminus of LA 978
	Livonia	104.3	LA 78 (Mississippi River Trail) LA 411 south (Maringouin Road East) – Grosse Tete
		104.4	LA 77 (Fordoche Road/Maringouin Road West) to I-10 – Grosse Tete, Fordoche
		106.8	LA 976	Northern terminus of LA 976
		109.4	LA 81 (Charles Road)
	Krotz Springs	115.3	LA 975	Interchange; northern terminus of LA 975
Krotz Springs Bridge over Atchafalaya River				North/west end of Airline Highway; west end of US 190 concurrency

References

1. ^ The Times-Picayune, June 1, 1927
2. ^ The Times-Picayune, July 19, 1925
3. ^ The Times-Picayune, July 4, 1933
4. ^ The Times-Picayune, September 30, 1933
5. ^ The Times-Picayune, May 1, 1935
6. ^ The Times-Picayune, December 13, 1935
7. ^ The Times-Picayune, October 30, 1937
8. ^ The Times-Picayune, December 20, 1938
9. ^ The Times-Picayune, August 26, 1940
10. ^ The Times-Picayune, August 17, 1952
11. ^ The Times-Picayune The States-Item, March 30, 1984
12. ^ U.S. Highways: Bypass U.S. Highways

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