Interstate 510 and 55 in Louisiana

Interstate 510 in Louisiana

I-510

Begin

I-10 New Orleans

End

New Orleans

Length

3 mi

Length

5 km

Route

1A → New Orleans / Mobile1B Lake Forest Boulevard

2A Chief Liar Highway

2B Almonaster Boulevard

Interstate 510 or I -510 is a short Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The highway forms a short branch off I-10 east of New Orleans. Interstate 510 is 5 kilometers long.

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Travel directions

Detail of I-510 on the east side of New Orleans.

Interstate 510 is a short spur of Interstate 10 in eastern New Orleans. I-510 runs from I-10 to US 90 and has 2×2 lanes. At its southern terminus at US 90, I-510 becomes State Highway 47.

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History

I-510, along with I-310 west of New Orleans, was part of the planned I-410, New Orleans’ southern beltway. This plan was canceled in the 1970s, but I-510 was still opened on November 13, 1992 as a connection to US 90.

Traffic intensities

32,000 vehicles travel on I-510 every day.

Louisiana Interstate 55

I-55

Get started

LaPlace

End

Kentwood

Length

66 mi

Length

106 km

Route

10 → Baton Rouge / New Orleans1 LaPlace

7 Old US 51

15 Old US 51

22 Old U.S. 51

23 Ponchatoula

26 Louisiana 22

28 U.S. 51

29 → Baton Rouge / Mobile

31 US 190

32 Hammond

36 Tickfaw

40 Independence

46 Amite City

50 Roseland

53 Louisiana 10

57 Tangipahoa

61 Kentwood

Mississippi

Interstate 55 or I -55 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The highway is located in the south of the state and runs from Interstate 10 at LaPlace to the Mississippi border at Kentwood. Interstate 55 runs right next to the large Lake Pontchartrain. The stretch in Louisiana is 106 kilometers long.

Travel directions

I-55 on the Manchac Swamp Bridge.

I-55 at the interchange with I-12 at Hammond.

I-55 begins near the village of LaPlace at an interchange with Interstate 10, about 20 miles west of New Orleans. Here, I-55 runs on flyovers through the swamps between Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas, the nearly 37-kilometer Manchac Swamp Bridge. However, the parallel US 51 does not run on overpasses. One then reaches the mainland at Ponchatoula, the region around the town of Hammond is therefore urbanized. Interstate 12 is crossed in Hammond. I-55 heads north in 2×2 lanes through an area of meadows and quite a bit of forest. There are no other noteworthy places on the I-55 route in Louisiana. After Kentwood comes the border with the stateMississippi, after which Interstate 55 in Mississippi continues to Jackson.

Manchac Swamp Bridge

The Manchac Swamp Bridge is a 36.7-kilometer bridge spanning the Manchac Swamp, covering one-third of I-55’s route through Louisiana. The bridge begins at the interchange with I-10 and runs all the way to Ponchatoula. There are three connections on this piece. Parallel to the bridge is the old US 51, which has been built on a slope. The bridge is built on thousands of bridge piers that go 76 meters deep because of the swamp. The Manchac Swamp bridge actually consists of two parallel bridges with 2 lanes and one hard shoulder in each direction.

History

Before the construction of I-55, US 51 was the primary north-south route from New Orleans. I-55 is paralleled everywhere a short distance from here. US 51 was built from 1927 along the west side of Lake Pontchartrain, where the road was built on a slope through the swamps. Before the construction of I-55, no portion of US 51 had been widened to 2×2 lanes.

Construction history

Construction on I-55 began in the late 1950s, the oldest part being the Ponchatoula bypass, a five-mile bypass that connected to US 51 on both sides and opened in the late 1960s as one of the first freeway stretches in Louisiana. The 60-kilometer stretch north of it to the Mississippi border was built in phases in the early 1960s. On June 16, 1967, it opened 25 kilometers from Roseland to the Mississippi border. In late 1969, the 35-kilometer section between the south side of Hammond and Roseland opened. This opened up most of I-55 in Louisiana.

The southern part through the Manchac Swamp was constructed last. This is a 38-kilometer stretch through the swamps between Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas, between I-10 at LaPlace and Ponchatoula. Unlike US 51 in 1927, it was decided not to build I-55 on a slope, but as two parallel viaducts 36.7 kilometers long, the Manchac Swamp Bridge. This was decided because the embankments of US 51 needed more maintenance than expected and the ecological impact of a viaduct was less. Construction of the viaduct began in November 1973 and the bridge was opened on May 25, 1979. When it opened, this was one of the longest bridges in the world.

Opening history

from	nasty	length	date
ponchatoula	Hammond	8 km	00-1x-1960
roseland	Mississippi border	25 km	16-06-1967
Hammond	roseland	35 km	00-1x-1969
LaPlace (I-10)	ponchatoula	38 km	25-05-1979

Traffic intensities

The southern portion off I-10 is pretty quiet, despite its proximity to the major city of New Orleans. About 19,000 vehicles drive here every day. North of I-12, this temporarily increases to 32,000 vehicles at Hammond, but before the Mississippi border it drops to just 15,000 vehicles. So I-55 can be called quiet in Louisiana.