Former Louisiana Highways

[mcdonaat]

Speaking of rerouted highways, US 165 BUS has been shifted along La. 1 North to the interchange with MacArthur Drive. The new Clearview/FHWA hybrid signs show the rerouting, but the Masonic Drive exit on the South Circle has no mention of La. 1208-5.

[cenlaroads]

A couple of former routes I just learned about,

LA 455 was the portion of current LA 115 from LA 28 to LA 1207.  Coming from Effie, LA 115 turned to the northwest at Deville to end at Holloway.  LA 1207 consisted only of that portion east of LA 115.

LA 1214 was the portion of LA 121 that now runs from its western terminus at LA 8 to LA 28.

[Road Hog]

I lived in Baton Rouge for a time as a kid. Visited a few years ago and learned a couple of things: 1. The place where I grew up is now the site of a Home Depot; 2. Airline Highway is still just as rough a ride as it was back then.

[mcdonaat]

Airline hopefully will be getting resurfaced soon. I've heard talks about doing it at night, in small segments. The idea is never to close the highway to major traffic. But, then again, those are just talks! It's desperately needed. I would even advocate a concrete highway instead of asphalt, with the heavy traffic it receives. I've seen in North Louisiana where the road is concrete, and the shoulders are asphalt. What I really like is where the road is asphalt, and the shoulder is gravel. It helps slow you down!

[mcdonaat]

Just got my hands on some maps from 1958, showing routes that are deleted. It seems, though, that US 61/190 Business actually used the Baton Rouge Expressway, now known as I-110, from Plank Road to Florida Blvd.

Also seeing that LA 42 and LA 30 used Highland Road, Nicholson wasn't built yet, LA 68 used the US 61 alignment north of Baton Rouge while US 61 used Old Scenic Highway. Government Street was LA 950-7 for a while, LA 427 used Perkins for its entire route, and Old Perkins (now Hyacinth) was LA 949, while Staring was LA 425.

LA 408 extended into Southern, and LA 28 didn't extend across the Catahoula Lake Outlet at the time. LA 37 also extended all the way to Florida Blvd. It's a weird thing to look at a map and see roads not existing where bottlenecks occur today.

[Alex]

The only log I am aware of is this one:

http://www.southeastroads.com/la_state_highways.html

It is missing several minor routes that I know of.  One that comes to mind right now is LA 1138-1.  Some of the newer routes (e.g., 1256, 1258) are also missing.

I emailed LADOTD for a route log or list of state highways back then and they gave me a copy of the spreadsheet Geographic Feature File for all of the State Maintained Highways in Louisiana. Spent several days in 2003 extracting the endpoints and typing all of this into html. A few years later when working for Mapsource, I requested an update of the file and was emailed one. I neglected to keep a copy of that when the map company folded, so in 2008 I asked again and was told it was no. Maybe mcdonaat can email his contact at LADOTD for the most recent version. I would be happy to help compile an updated log.

[mcdonaat]

I'm going to be at the headquarters tomorrow to look at records showing which routes have been deleted and added, and the dates. By comparing that to LA 1-1241, and the 3000+ routes, I should have a Word document available (can be in PDF too) that will show the routes, the lengths, and the dates that routes have been removed.

[agentsteel53]

can you find any info about route markers?  specifications for design, size, and reflectivity standards, and even some general usage info?  I'd really like to know when they changed from the pelican to the state outline, for example.

[mcdonaat]

Sure, I can find that out tomorrow. The route log might need to be updated though. I've just received a call from the DOTD Legal Department saying that there are, not kidding, 1400+ routes that have been changed and deleted. I'm getting a list of the highways, so it should be a piece of cake to just slap it into a file.

Per route markers, I'll see what I can do. Friday will be my research day, and I can easily hop over to the state archives or the library at LSU. I'm sure there HAS to be a record of the signs. I'm asking around to see if any photos were taken, dimensions recorded, or even a rare sign intact. The tricky problem is that the highway dept was established in 1924, with routes being marked. There has to be some period where some primitive highway signs were posted. I'll respond back to you when I get dimensions!

[agentsteel53]

Per route markers, I'll see what I can do. Friday will be my research day, and I can easily hop over to the state archives or the library at LSU. I'm sure there HAS to be a record of the signs. I'm asking around to see if any photos were taken, dimensions recorded, or even a rare sign intact. The tricky problem is that the highway dept was established in 1924, with routes being marked. There has to be some period where some primitive highway signs were posted. I'll respond back to you when I get dimensions!

great, thank you!  any and all information will be very helpful

[cenlaroads]

The only log I am aware of is this one:

http://www.southeastroads.com/la_state_highways.html

It is missing several minor routes that I know of.  One that comes to mind right now is LA 1138-1.  Some of the newer routes (e.g., 1256, 1258) are also missing.

I emailed LADOTD for a route log or list of state highways back then and they gave me a copy of the spreadsheet Geographic Feature File for all of the State Maintained Highways in Louisiana. Spent several days in 2003 extracting the endpoints and typing all of this into html. A few years later when working for Mapsource, I requested an update of the file and was emailed one. I neglected to keep a copy of that when the map company folded, so in 2008 I asked again and was told it was no. Maybe mcdonaat can email his contact at LADOTD for the most recent version. I would be happy to help compile an updated log.

Many thanks for the work you put into making that!  I did not realize that it had taken that much time.  I knew that the roads it was missing were simply those that had been added since the log was made.  I have learned from mcdonaat that the current route LA 1138-1 is not the original one; it was recently recommissioned, having been first deleted before the route log was made.

Sure, I can find that out tomorrow. The route log might need to be updated though. I've just received a call from the DOTD Legal Department saying that there are, not kidding, 1400+ routes that have been changed and deleted. I'm getting a list of the highways, so it should be a piece of cake to just slap it into a file.

Per route markers, I'll see what I can do. Friday will be my research day, and I can easily hop over to the state archives or the library at LSU. I'm sure there HAS to be a record of the signs. I'm asking around to see if any photos were taken, dimensions recorded, or even a rare sign intact. The tricky problem is that the highway dept was established in 1924, with routes being marked. There has to be some period where some primitive highway signs were posted. I'll respond back to you when I get dimensions!

Does the 1400 figure refer to routes changed since the 1955 renumbering?  Or is it more recent than that?

[mcdonaat]

The 1400 are roads deleted, added, and swapped since 1955. The pre-1955 routes aren't in this picture.

I'm currently going through Wikipedia and adding parish highway pages for routes that are intersected by the Interstates. If there are any that you would like to personally see put up, let me know! Click on over to I-49, and you can see that PR 620, PR 547, and PR 22 are added, with full pages that look just like the state highway pages, minus the state shield. I'm also making custom parish shields to go with them.

[bassoon1986]

I was in Alexandria/Pineville on a fly by trip to see family in the hospital last weekend. I have lost my camera as of late or I would have taken some pics of the newly routed BUS 165 signs and bgs's. I guess I'm still at a loss for why it was moved. Less zig zags, yes, but it used to follow the original routing. Now if you're coming north on 165 from Lake Charles, it seems weird to me that you would go through most of Alexandria before seeing the Business 165 sign right before you cross the river.

I know mcdonaat is hankering for a 1208-5 or something like it to appear at the South traffic circle, but I didn't see one and I don't think it will make it on there. There is now just a smaller BGS in clearview that says Masonic Drive.

Oh and I did see one leftover Bus 165 sign they missed. Going east/south on Bolton Ave when you get to Lee St the "quadroplex" sign is still present: LA 1, Bus LA 28, and US 165 and US167 with a shared business banner between the 2.

This is an older assembly of what I'm talking about:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=31.302558,-92.451786&spn=0.000009,0.005681&t=m&z=18&layer=c&cbll=31.302354,-92.451551&panoid=fkLhqqUgh6mTzb4iyaVGFg&cbp=12,156.42,,0,11.22

[mcdonaat]

It was moved because Masonic Drive was given to the city, releasing mileage for I-49 South. LA 1208-5 is the new designation of the stub end north of the traffic circle, since all state routes must have a number.

I did notice the US 165 BUS a while back, but never exited to see if they put up new signs along LA 1. The idea was to connect US 165 BUS to US 165 mainline. A general idea is that, if you're coming from the south, you take US 167 BUS. Confusing, yes, but at least the highway alignment was still left to connect to US 165.

[cenlaroads]

Does anyone have any information about the following state highways, including whether they have ever actually existed?  For all of these I am asking about the period since the 1955 renumbering.  Thanks in advance for any answers!

LA 1251, LA 1255, LA 1257, LA 1259, LA 1260, LA 1261, LA 3004, LA 3010, LA 3016, LA 3022, LA 3023, LA 3027, LA 3028, LA 3029, LA 3030, LA 3031, LA 3047, LA 3053, LA 3058, LA 3065, LA 3080, LA 3084, LA 3085, LA 3088, LA 3106, LA 3108, LA 3109, LA 3110, LA 3111, LA 3114, LA 3117, LA 3119, LA 3122, LA 3126, LA 3129, LA 3133, LA 3135, LA 3145, LA 3157, LA 3167, LA 3171, LA 3172, LA 3176, LA 3183, LA 3189, LA 3192, LA 3200, LA 3204, LA 3207, LA 3208, LA 3216, LA 3222, LA 3230, LA 3236, LA 3240, LA 3243, LA 3268, LA 3270, LA 3271, LA 3272, LA 3273, LA 3283

[mcdonaat]

Does anyone have any information about the following state highways, including whether they have ever actually existed?  For all of these I am asking about the period since the 1955 renumbering.  Thanks in advance for any answers!

LA 1251, LA 1255, LA 1257, LA 1259, LA 1260, LA 1261, LA 3004, LA 3010, LA 3016, LA 3022, LA 3023, LA 3027, LA 3028, LA 3029, LA 3030, LA 3031, LA 3047, LA 3053, LA 3058, LA 3065, LA 3080, LA 3084, LA 3085, LA 3088, LA 3106, LA 3108, LA 3109, LA 3110, LA 3111, LA 3114, LA 3117, LA 3119, LA 3122, LA 3126, LA 3129, LA 3133, LA 3135, LA 3145, LA 3157, LA 3167, LA 3171, LA 3172, LA 3176, LA 3183, LA 3189, LA 3192, LA 3200, LA 3204, LA 3207, LA 3208, LA 3216, LA 3222, LA 3230, LA 3236, LA 3240, LA 3243, LA 3268, LA 3270, LA 3271, LA 3272, LA 3273, LA 3283

-raises hand slightly- shoot me an email, and I'll attach two Word documents. One shows numbers that haven't been used, and the other shows deletions, down to the year.

[Alps]

Does anyone have any information about the following state highways, including whether they have ever actually existed?  For all of these I am asking about the period since the 1955 renumbering.  Thanks in advance for any answers!

LA 1251, LA 1255, LA 1257, LA 1259, LA 1260, LA 1261, LA 3004, LA 3010, LA 3016, LA 3022, LA 3023, LA 3027, LA 3028, LA 3029, LA 3030, LA 3031, LA 3047, LA 3053, LA 3058, LA 3065, LA 3080, LA 3084, LA 3085, LA 3088, LA 3106, LA 3108, LA 3109, LA 3110, LA 3111, LA 3114, LA 3117, LA 3119, LA 3122, LA 3126, LA 3129, LA 3133, LA 3135, LA 3145, LA 3157, LA 3167, LA 3171, LA 3172, LA 3176, LA 3183, LA 3189, LA 3192, LA 3200, LA 3204, LA 3207, LA 3208, LA 3216, LA 3222, LA 3230, LA 3236, LA 3240, LA 3243, LA 3268, LA 3270, LA 3271, LA 3272, LA 3273, LA 3283

-raises hand slightly- shoot me an email, and I'll attach two Word documents. One shows numbers that haven't been used, and the other shows deletions, down to the year.

That would be an awesome thing to have online. If you don't have a place to put it, I raise my hand slightly. (I'm working on a Louisiana update right now, actually, so the timing is right.)

[mcdonaat]

I sent cenlaroads an email with the files attached. I'd like for someone to update the current highways, especially ones that are from around different parts of the state. I'm in the midst of the pre-1955 system, trying to churn out the first 98 articles... about 60 more to go! I'm also wanting a revamping of the page to make it a little less intimidating, but that's on the back burner for now. Once my car is fixed, and the New Orleans roadmeet happens, you'll see some great photos added!

By the way, I invite anyone to check out the new pages for the state highway system, pre-1955. A starting page would be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Route_6, where the junction list is added, showing ONLY routes 1-98 and US highways, as seen in 1955. As I add routes in groups, I'll update the pages to match. Also, see LA 425's page for a glimpse of the old-style Louisiana shield. LA 1262 also is different, showing the new shield.

[Alps]

Boooo Wikipedia.

[mcdonaat]

Yep! Wikipedia, and I want at least Louisiana to be up-to-par with the other states, mainly Texas and Michigan. The 1940 census is out, I want people to be able to search "Louisiana State Route 4" and come across a wealth of information about the old road.

[cenlaroads]

I did notice the US 165 BUS a while back, but never exited to see if they put up new signs along LA 1.

They did, at least Jackson St. bound.