Within Louisiana, U.S. 71 travels 231.10 miles northwest from U.S. 190 near Krotz Springs to the Arkansas state line at the village of Ida. U.S. 71 parallels Interstate 49 northwest from Bunkie to Shreveport and Texarkana, Arkansas.
U.S. 71 Louisiana Guides
U.S. 71 bee lines northwest from a trumpet interchange along U.S. 190 across the Atchafalaya Floodway. The highway converges with LA 10 and a Union Pacific Railroad line at Lebeau.
Paralleling the Union Pacific Railroad, U.S. 71 continues northwest to the city of Bunkie. The two diverge west into Rapids Parish, with U.S. 71 following Bayou Boeuf into the town of Cheneyville.
U.S. 71 and the adjacent Union Pacific Railroad head northwest to Meeker, where U.S. 167 ties in from Turkey Creek to the south. U.S. 71/167 overlap through the town of Lecompte north en route to Alexandria.
U.S. 167 joins I-49 and then Pineville Expressway bypassing Alexandria and Pineville to the north while U.S. 71 shifts onto MacArthur Drive, an arterial encircling Alexandria to the west. U.S. 165 accompanies U.S. 71 north to Pineville as well.
U.S. 71/167 converge again north along a freeway from Tioga to Timber Trails. The two highways part ways into Grant Parish, with U.S. 71 generally following the Red River northwest to Colfax and Montgomery.
Within Natchitoches Parish, U.S. 84 combines with U.S. 71 north from the village of Clarence to the town of Campti. The 23.58 mile long overlap concludes at the town of Coushatta in Red River Parish.
U.S. 71 remains east of the Red River northward to Bossier City. The highway combines with Interstate 20 west across the river to an overlap with LA 1 along Market/Spring Streets through Downtown Shreveport. Beyond Shreveport, U.S. 71 parallels I-49 to the east through Belcher and Gilliam and the west through Hosston.
Prior to 1951, U.S. 71 overlapped with U.S. 190 east from near Krotz Springs to U.S. 61/65 in Baton Rouge. The concurrency was eliminated to remove the redundancy. U.S. 71 was realigned onto a freeway overlapping with U.S. 167 north from Tioga 3.7 miles to Timber Trails with approval from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) on October 4, 1981. Action at the same meeting eliminated U.S. 71 Business through Alexandria.
Connect with:
Interstate 20
Interstate 49
U.S. 84
U.S. 167
U.S. 190
Page Updated 06-26-2023.