Louisiana Highway 73 (LA 73) is a state highway in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

stretching from Geismar to Baton Rouge. LA 73 was built as a bypass to the backbends of River Road. It was soon after bypassed itself in a more complete way with

U.S. Route 61 U.S. Route 61 or U.S. Highway 61 (U.S. 61) is a major United States highway that extends between New Orleans, Louisiana and the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River and is designate ...

(

Airline Highway Airline Highway is a divided highway in the U.S. state of Louisiana, built in stages between 1925 and 1953 to bypass the older Jefferson Highway. It runs , carrying U.S. Highway 61 from New Orleans northwest to Baton Rouge and U.S. Highway 19 ...

Route description

From LA 75 (River Road), LA 73 travels north north east as an undivided two-lane road through the Dutchtown area before hitting I-10 and US 61. From US 61 it turns north through

Prairieville, Louisiana Prairieville is a census-designated place in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is south of Baton Rouge and north of Gonzales. Prairieville is an expanding bedroom suburb of Baton Rouge. Its name is derived from the once plentiful ...

and turns northwest to cross

Bayou Manchac Bayou Manchac is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 bayou in southeast Louisiana, USA. First called the Iberville River ("rivière d'Iberville") by its Frenc ...

. At one time, this portion of the highway was called Hope Villa Road. For most of its length in

East Baton Rouge Parish East Baton Rouge Parish (french: Paroisse de Bâton Rouge Est) is the most populous parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2010 U.S. census, its population was 440,171, and 456,781 at the 2020 census. The parish seat is Baton Rouge, ...

, LA 73 is known as

Jefferson Highway The Jefferson Highway was an automobile highway stretching through the central United States from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Jefferson Highway was replaced with the new numbered US Highway system in the late 1920s. ...

. At Tiger Bend Road it becomes a four-lane with turning lane for about a mile and before becoming concurrent with Airline Highway for another mile. After leaving Airline Highway it takes a generally northwesterly path until it becomes Government Street at the entrance to downtown Baton Rouge. As Government Street it proceeds due west to a junction with River Road. LA 73 ends at an intersection with the southbound beginning of

LA 30 Louisiana Highway 30 (LA 30) is a state highway located in southeastern Louisiana. It runs in a northwest to southeast direction from LA 73 in Baton Rouge to the junction of U.S. Highway 61 (US 61) and LA 431 east of Gon ...

, also known as St. Philip Street.

History

The route of LA 73 was originally called "Clay Cut Road," as it roughly followed the Claycut Bayou through the southern part of East Baton Rouge Parish. Other names for the road were Hope Villa Road, as it traversed through the community of Hope Villa in Ascension Parish. When the

auto trail was designated in 1916, Clay Cut and Hope Villa Roads became part of the new road (there is now another Claycut Road in Baton Rouge, located south of the present-day LA-73). When Louisiana numbered their highways in 1921 plan, Jefferson Highway was designated Louisiana Highway 1. US 61 followed the section between Prairieville and the Mississippi River from 1926 until 1933 when the Airline Highway was opened between Prairieville and the Bonnet Carré Spillway. US 61 remained on the section between Prairieville and Baton Rouge until 1941, when Airline Highway was extended into Baton Rouge. As of 2018, the portion west of LA 948 is under agreement to be removed from the state highway system and transferred to local control.

Major junctions

References

0073 Transportation in Ascension Parish, Louisiana Transportation in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana Transportation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana {{BatonRougeLA-stub