Louisiana Highway 76

From the west, LA 76 begins at a T-intersection with LA 77 in the small Iberville Parish town of Maringouin. It heads south, continuing the path of LA 77 alongside Bayou Maringouin. After {{convert|5.8|mi|km}}, LA 3000 picks up the route and proceeds a short distance further to an interchange with I-10 at Ramah. Meanwhile, LA 76 turns northeast onto Rosedale Road and continues into the village of Rosedale. Here, the highway has a second junction with LA 77, which follows Bayou Grosse Tete through the area. LA 76 crosses a bascule bridge over the bayou and immediately intersects LA 411 on the opposite bank. Just northeast of Rosedale, the surroundings change abruptly from rural farmland to thickly wooded wetlands, and LA 76 crosses into West Baton Rouge Parish.{{Google maps |url=http://www.google.com/maps/dir/30.48887,-91.5231421/30.4522395,-91.2102607/@30.454827,-91.3625067,21160m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m19!4m18!1m15!3m4!1m2!1d-91.507212!2d30.4191441!3s0x8624135b7c992c0d:0x6e84396a3b907f79!3m4!1m2!1d-91.3726974!2d30.4747906!3s0x86241782901f1d0f:0xc35cd945920b854e!3m4!1m2!1d-91.2321665!2d30.4512101!3s0x86241e6ac608637d:0x53dd41a2dcd033aa!1m0!3e0?hl=en |title=Overview Map of LA 76 |accessdate=March 22, 2016}}{{cite LADOTD map |date=2012P |parish=Iberville |sheet=West |accessdate=March 22, 2016}}{{cite LADOTD map |date=2012D |district=61 |accessdate=March 22, 2016}}

About {{convert|3.5|mi|km}} across the parish line, LA 76 intersects LA 413 (Poydras Bayou Drive), connecting with US 190 at Erwinville. Soon afterward, LA 76 curves due east, and the surroundings return to rural farmland. {{convert|4|mi|km|spell=In}} later, LA 76 intersects LA 1145 (Calumet Road) and then dips south slightly to a junction with LA 415 (Lobdell Highway), a four-lane thoroughfare. Rosedale Road continues straight ahead as part of LA 986 while LA 76 turns south to run concurrent with LA 415 for a short distance. LA 76 turns east again onto Court Street just north of an interchange with I-10 and returns to its original two-lane capacity.{{cite LADOTD map |date=2012P |parish=West Baton Rouge |accessdate=March 22, 2016}}

The highway then proceeds into the small city of Port Allen, which serves as the parish seat. Immediately after crossing the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) line at grade, LA 76 ends at a junction with LA 1 (Alexander Avenue), a divided four-lane highway with service roads. Court Street continues straight ahead toward the Mississippi River as part of LA 987-4.

LA 76 has several different classifications by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (La DOTD) over the course of its route. It generally functions as a rural minor collector along the Bayou Maringouin road, a rural major collector along Rosedale Road, an urban principal arterial along Lobdell Highway, and an urban minor arterial along Court Street. Daily traffic volume in 2013 peaked at 24,100 vehicles on Lobdell Highway outside of Port Allen. The lowest numbers were reported south of Maringouin with an average between 790 and 970 vehicles per day.{{cite web |url=http://gis.dotd.la.gov/DOTD_EIC/DOTDMapping/ |title=La DOTD GIS |year=2013 |publisher=Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development |accessdate=August 30, 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016093226/http://gis.dotd.la.gov/DOTD_EIC/DOTDMapping/ |archivedate=October 16, 2013 }} The posted speed limit is generally {{convert|55|mph|km/h|abbr=on|round=5}} in rural areas, but is reduced as low as {{convert|25|mph|km/h|abbr=on|round=5}} through town.

In the original Louisiana Highway system in use between 1921 and 1955, LA 76 was part of several different routes, including State Route 998 along Bayou Maringouin; State Route 142 to Rosedale; State Route 1 and State Route 7 to Lobdell Highway; and State Route 30 into Port Allen.{{cite LADOTD map |date=1955P |parish=Iberville |link=y}}{{cite LADOTD map |date=1955P |parish=West Baton Rouge}} The section between Rosedale and Port Allen had formerly been part of one of the state's most important highways, the Jefferson Highway auto trail, which was the main traffic route between New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport in the days before the numbered U.S. Highway system.{{cite map |publisher=Clason Map Company |title=Mileage Map of the Best Roads of Louisiana |year=1925 |author=Clason Map Company |author-link=Clason Map Company }} It became part of the original alignment of US 71 in 1926{{cite book |title=United States Numbered Highways, Selected by American Association of State Highway Officials, Approved by United States Department of Agriculture |publisher=American Association of State Highway Officials |page=28 |year=1927}}{{cite map |publisher=Clason Map Company |title=Mileage Map of the Best Roads of Louisiana |year=1927 |author=Clason Map Company}} and then US 190 in 1935 when the latter was extended west from Baton Rouge.{{cite map |publisher=Texaco |title=Texaco Road Map: Arkansas/Louisiana/Mississippi |year=1934 |author=Rand McNally |author-link=Rand McNally |edition=Summer}}{{cite LADOTD map |date=1935 |link=y}} This portion of what is now LA 76 connected to the Baton Rouge ferry across the Mississippi River before the completion of the Huey P. Long Bridge upstream on the current alignment of US 190 in 1940.{{cite news |title=Span Over River at Baton Rouge is Dedicated |newspaper=The Times-Picayune New Orleans States |location=New Orleans |date=August 11, 1940 |page=11}}{{cite map |publisher=Esso |title=Arkansas, Louisiana & Adjoining Area With Pictorial Guide |date=1941 |author=General Drafting |author-link=General Drafting }} This and other highway realignments in the area caused the Rosedale Road to decline in importance in the years leading up to the Louisiana Department of Highways' renumbering of the state highway system in 1955.{{cite LADOTD map |date=1955}}

LA 76 was created in the 1955 renumbering, bringing portions of several different former routes under a single designation.{{cite news |title=Act No. 40, House Bill No. 311 |newspaper=State-Times |location=Baton Rouge |date=June 18, 1955 |pages=3B–4B}}

{{Blockquote

|Class "B": La 76—From a junction with La 77 at or near Rosedale to a junction with La 1 at or near Port Allen.
Class "C": La 76—From a junction with La 77 at or near Maringouin through or near Ramah to a junction with La 77 at or near Rosedale.

|1955 legislative route description

}}

With the 1955 renumbering, the state highway department initially categorized all routes into three classes: "A" (primary), "B" (secondary), and "C" (farm-to-market).{{cite web |url=http://webmail.dotd.la.gov/ppmemos.nsf/0/713E6BD1D0A90BE186256F1D004EF299/$file/EDSM+(01182011)+-+dmb1.htm |title=Engineering Directives and Standards: Authorization and Definition of the State Highway System |date=January 18, 2011 |publisher=Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development |accessdate=August 15, 2013}} This system has since been updated and replaced by a more specific functional classification system.

La DOTD is currently engaged in a program that aims to transfer about {{convert|5000|mi|km}} of state-owned roadways to local governments over the next several years.{{cite web |url=http://www.dotd.la.gov/programs/RoadTransfer/documents/Right-Sizing%20the%20State%20Highway%20System.pdf |title=Right-Sizing the State Highway System |date=April 2013 |publisher=Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development |page=3 |accessdate=July 25, 2013}} Under this plan of "right-sizing" the state highway system, the eastern portion of LA 76 along Court Street in the Port Allen area is proposed for deletion as it no longer meets a significant interurban travel function.{{cite LADOTD map |date=2017RS |parish=West Baton Rouge |accessdate=June 19, 2017}}

{{LAinttop|length_ref=}}

{{LAint

|parish=Iberville

|pspan=5

|location=Maringouin

|mile=0.000

|road={{jct|state=LA|LA|77|dir1=north|to2=to|US|190|city1=Livonia}}
{{jct|state=LA|LA|77|dir1=south|name1=Landry Drive|city1=Maringouin|city2=Rosedale}}

|notes=Western terminus

}}

{{LAint

|location=none

|mile=5.813

|road={{jct|state=LA|LA|3000|dir1=south|to2=to|I|10|city1=Ramah}}

|notes=Northern terminus of LA 3000

}}

{{LAint

|location=Rosedale

|lspan=3

|mile=9.394

|road={{jct|state=LA|LA|77|city1=Grosse Tete|city2=Maringouin}}

|notes=

}}

{{LAint

|mile=9.411

|mile2=9.454

|bridge=Bridge over Bayou Grosse Tete

}}

{{LAint

|mile=9.457

|road={{jct|state=LA|LA|411|dir1=north|to2=to|US|190}}

|notes=Southern terminus of LA 411

}}

{{LAint

|parish=West Baton Rouge

|pspan=5

|location=none

|mile=14.164

|road={{jct|state=LA|LA|413|dir1=north|name1=Poydras Bayou Drive|city1=Erwinville}}

|notes=Southern terminus of LA 413

}}

{{LAint

|location=none

|mile=20.619

|road={{jct|state=LA|LA|1145|dir1=north|name1=Calumet Road}}

|notes=Southern terminus of LA 1145

}}

{{LAint

|location=none

|type=concur

|mile=22.596

|road={{jct|state=LA|LA|415|dir1=north|name1=Lobdell Highway}}
{{jct|state=LA|LA|986|name1=Rosedale Road}}

|notes=West end of LA 415 concurrency; southern terminus of LA 986

}}

{{LAint

|location=none

|type=concur

|mile=23.377

|mile2=23.462

|road={{jct|state=LA|LA|415|dir1=south|name1=Lobdell Highway|to2=to|I|10}}

|notes=East end of LA 415 concurrency

}}

{{LAint

|location=Port Allen

|mile=25.506

|mile2=25.516

|road={{jct|state=LA|LA|1|name1=Alexander Avenue}}
{{jct|state=LA|LA|987-4|name1=Court Street}}

|notes=Eastern terminus of LA 76; western terminus of LA 987-4

}}

{{jctbtm|keys=concur}}

• {{Portal-inline|United States}}
• {{Portal-inline|U.S. Roads}}

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{{Attached KML|display=inline,title}}

• [http://wwwsp.dotd.la.gov/Business/Pages/GIS_Maps.aspx Maps / GIS Data Homepage], Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development

0076

Category:Transportation in Iberville Parish, Louisiana

Category:Transportation in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana