Interstate 10 (I-10), a major transcontinental

Interstate Highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

, runs across the southern part of

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

for from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mis ...

. It passes through Lake Charles, Lafayette, and

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of countie ...

, dips south of

Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from wes ...

to serve the

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

I-10 Twin Span Bridge The I-10 Twin Span Bridge, a nearly causeway officially known as the Frank Davis "Naturally N'Awlins" Memorial Bridge, consists of two parallel trestle bridges. These parallel bridges cross the eastern end of Lake Pontchartrain in southern Lo ...

was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, rendering it unusable. The bridge was repaired, and later replaced with two higher elevation spans in 2009 and 2010.

Route description

I-10 enters Louisiana at the state's southwestern corner from Orange,

, in a concurrency with US Route 90 (US 90), which leaves the freeway at the first exit. The two routes closely parallel each other through much of the state. The first community I-10 approaches in the state is

Vinton, Louisiana Vinton is a town in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 3,400 in 2020. It is part of the Lake Charles metropolitan statistical area. History The Old Spanish Trail, which was neither old nor Spanish, wandered north and ...

. Between Sulphur and Lake Charles there is an interchange with I-210. I-10 crosses the

Calcasieu River Bridge The Calcasieu River Bridge, officially named the Louisiana Memorial World War II Bridge in June 1951 is a through truss located on Interstate 10 between Lake Charles, Louisiana and Westlake, Louisiana. It was the only major bridge in Lake Charles, ...

into Lake Charles, passing north of the center of town, before meeting the western end of I-210. Between Lake Charles and Lafayette, I-10 bypasses several small towns including

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

, Jennings, and Crowley. In Lafayette, I-10 meets the current southern terminus of I-49, leaving northwest out of the city and passing by the community of Breaux Bridge. From Lafayette, the highway heads east-northeast toward Baton Rouge via the Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway, an bridge across the Atchafalaya River and its accompanying swamp. Between the two cities, I-10 parallels US 190, from Opelousas to Baton Rouge. This route has signs and is designated as an alternate I-10 bypass that runs from I-10/I-49 north to US 190 (exit 19B at Opelousas) then east across to Baton Rouge and back down to I-10 via I-110 south. Traffic can be diverted both ways along this route should there be the necessity to close I-10 across the Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway and is also used as a hurricane evacuation route. The I-10, running west of New Orleans

In the capital of Baton Rouge, US 190 continues east alongside I-12 to

Hammond Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in South ...

and Slidell while I-10 turns southeastward and parallels US 61 ( Airline Highway) to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

US 11) as it heads toward Slidell. In Slidell, US 11 continues northeastward toward Hattiesburg, Mississippi while I-10 and US 90 turn eastward toward coastal

. Major bridges on I-10 in Louisiana include the

Sabine River Bridge The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines d ...

(c. 1952, replaced 2003), the

Lake Charles I-10 Bridge The Calcasieu River Bridge, officially named the Louisiana Memorial World War II Bridge in June 1951 is a through truss located on Interstate 10 between Lake Charles, Louisiana and Westlake, Louisiana. It was the only major bridge in Lake Charles, ...

(1952), the Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway (1973), the

Horace Wilkinson Bridge The Horace Wilkinson Bridge (locally known as the New Bridge) is a cantilever bridge carrying Interstate 10 in Louisiana across the Mississippi River from Port Allen in West Baton Rouge Parish to Baton Rouge in East Baton Rouge Parish. Aroun ...

over the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

(1968), the Bonnet Carré Spillway Bridge (c. 1972), the Industrial Canal Bridge (c. 1960), Frank Davis "Naturally N'Awlins" Memorial Bridge (1965, replaced 2010), and the Pearl River Bridge (c. 1970). Interstate 10 eastbound over Lake Charles (LA)

Interstate 10 eastbound over Lake Charles (LA)

History

By the beginning of planning for the Interstate Highway System in 1939 (then called the Interregional Highway System), the

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

–New Orleans–

Mobile Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ...

corridor was part of the system. Preliminary plans took it along US 90 all the way through Louisiana, serving Lake Charles and Lafayette but not Baton Rouge. By c. 1943, it had been shifted to the north west of New Orleans, using the Louisiana Highway 12 (LA 12), US 190, and US 61 corridors, and serving Baton Rouge but not Lake Charles or Lafayette. The 1947 plan shifted it to roughly the current alignment, including the long stretch of new corridor across the Atchafalaya Swamp. The corridor was assigned the I-10 designation in mid-1957. Prior to the gaining of federal funding for the Interstate System in the late 1950s, a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemen ...

, the

Acadian Thruway The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French colonial empire, French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia (region), A ...

, had been proposed between Lafayette and a point near Gramercy on Airline Highway (US 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 LA 3125 connecting to Gramercy, but no road extends west from the bridge across the Atchafalaya Swamp to Lafayette. I-10 LA 127

Int10eRoadLA-Exit267AB-Int59-Int12w (33070048911)

I-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 I-59 split in eastern New Orleans, with I-59 following present I-10 and I-10 following the US 90 corridor into Mississippi, and so I-12 only ran to I-59 north of Slidell. 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. Construction of the Interstate Highway System in Louisiana began in 1957. Early I-10 contracts were done under the route designation LA 3027. Much of the early construction on the I-10 corridor was concentrated on relieving traffic problems in urban centers. Several such projects were already underway and were incorporated into the route of I-10 during construction, such as the Pontchartrain Expressway in New Orleans. In addition, the two major bridges on the route in Calcasieu Parish between the Texas state line and Lake Charles were built for US 90 in the early 1950s and retrofitted for I-10 traffic. Sections of I-10 through rural areas and/or those sections already served adequately by existing highways, such as Airline Highway (US 61) between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, were constructed later in the program. By the spring of 1975, the entire route of I-10 had been opened across Louisiana except for a problem section between Gonzales and Sorrento that was not completed for another three years. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the I-10 Twin Span Bridge, a portion of I-10 between New Orleans and Slidell, spanning the eastern end of Lake Pontchartrain, was severely damaged, causing a break in I-10 at that point. Unlike the Escambia Bay Bridge (east of Pensacola,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

and damaged by Hurricane Ivan), which is a major artery, I-12 is available to bypass New Orleans. Taking I-12 to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway allowed entry and exit to and from the Greater New Orleans area from the East. On October 14, 2005, at 3:00 pm, the eastbound span was reopened to two way traffic. On January 6, 2006, at 6:00 am, both lanes of the westbound span were reopened to traffic using temporary metal trusses and road panels to replace damaged sections. This restored all four lanes of the I-10 Twin Span for normal traffic with a speed limit for the westbound lanes and for the eastbound lanes. Oversized and overweight traffic was prohibited until a new permanent six-lane span replaced the two temporarily repaired spans. The eastbound span opened to traffic on July 9, 2009, and the westbound span opened on April 7, 2010, with the old bridge being permanently closed. The approaches to the westbound lanes were completed with a ribbon cutting ceremony on September 8, 2011, and the opening of all six lanes the next morning. The old Twin Span will be demolished in the near future. In 2014, the Louisiana State Legislature officially named the Twin Span as the Frank Davis "Naturally N'Awlins" Memorial Bridge. A $68.9 million three-year construction project was completed between

Causeway Boulevard A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet ...

and the 17th Street Canal in Metairie,

. It added new lanes in both directions and improve the exit and entrance ramps at Causeway and Bonnabel Boulevard. In 2012, the state completed a widening project between Causeway and Clearview Parkway and between the I-10/I-610 split and Airline Highway ( US 61). In 2015, the additional lanes were extended in Metairie, from Clearview Parkway west to Veterans Boulevard. I-10 was widened to three lanes in each direction from the I-10/ I-12 split to Highland Road (exit 166) from late 2008 to spring 2013.

Future

On April 8, 2017, Louisiana DOTD broke ground on the reconstruction of of I-10 between I-49 (exit 103) and the Atchafalaya Basin. A center concrete barrier will be constructed, road repaved, and an extra travel lane will be constructed, making I-10 three lanes in each direction. Construction began May 2017 and will last two years. There are also calls to remove I-10 from the Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans and rename

I-610 Interstate 610 may refer to: * Interstate 610 (Louisiana), an alternate in New Orleans, Louisiana * Interstate 610 (Texas) Interstate 610 (I-610) is a freeway that forms a loop around the inner city sector of the city of Houston, Texas. I-6 ...

to I-10. The entire length of the Pontchartrain Expressway would likely be renamed as

I-910 U.S. Highway 90 Business (US 90 Bus.) is a business route of U.S. Highway 90 located in and near New Orleans, Louisiana. It runs in a general east–west direction from US 90 in Avondale to a junction with Interstate 10 (I-10) and US ...

or I-49. Flyover ramps are currently being built at the I-10 and Loyola Drive Interchange in Kenner. Part of the project is constructing a diverging diamond interchange where both of the roads meet. The project will connect I-10 to the new terminal of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, and is expected to be completed in 2023 after starting construction in late 2019.

Exit list

Auxiliary routes

* I-110 is a spur northward through downtown

toward the northern part of the city. It was not in the original plans, but was added in the 1960s to replace the canceled

I-410 Interstate 410 (abbreviated I-410, and colloquially called Loop 410) is a loop route of I-10 around San Antonio, Texas. It is identified as Connally Loop in honor of former Texas Governor John Connally. Route description I-410 ci ...

. * I-210 is a bypass around the south side of Lake Charles. It was added in 1962. * I-310 is a spur from I-10 west of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

US 90 (future I-49). It was part of a longer

from 1969 to 1977. ** A previous I-310 was added in 1964 and canceled 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 The Crescent City Connection (CCC), formerly the Greater New Orleans Bridge (GNO), is a pair of cantilever bridges that carry U.S. Highway 90 Business (US 90 Bus.) over the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. ...

. * The first

was a northern bypass of

along the Airline Highway ( US 61/ US 190) corridor. It was added in September 1955 and removed by the late 1960s. ** The second

was defined in 1969 as a southern bypass of New Orleans, as a sort of replacement for the canceled I-310. The southern section of I-410 was canceled in 1977, and the west and east legs became I-310 and I-510, respectively. * I-510 is a spur from I-10 in eastern New Orleans south to the

Paris Road Bridge The Paris Road Bridge is the name of the bridge carrying Louisiana Highway 47 across the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet between St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans East in Louisiana, United States. It is also known as the Green Bridge. The name " ...

over the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway ( Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal). It was part of a longer

from 1969 to 1977. *

is a bypass for through traffic north of downtown New Orleans. It was added in September 1955. *

is a piece of future I-49 from downtown New Orleans south and west to Marrero. The temporary designation was assigned by the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program ...

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.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:I010

Route description

History

Future

Exit list

Auxiliary routes

See also

References

External links