.svg) Louisiana Highway 23 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Route information | ||||
| Maintained byLouisiana DOTD | ||||
| Length | 73.6 mi[1] (118.4 km) | |||
| Existed | 1955 renumbering–present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| South end | Jump Basin Road inVenice | |||
| Major intersections |  LA 3017 inBelle Chasse    US 90 Bus. /Future I-49 /LA 18 in Gretna | |||
| North end |  LA 428 in Gretna | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Louisiana | |||
| Parishes | Plaquemines,Jefferson | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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Louisiana Highway 23 (LA 23) is a north–southstate highway inLouisiana that servesPlaquemines andJefferson Parishes. It spans 74.0 miles (119.1 km) in roughly a southeast to northwest direction.[1] It is known locally as Belle Chasse Highway and Lafayette Street.
LA 23 connectsGretna andVenice. Between Belle Chasse and Venice, the highway serves as the main road along the west bank of theMississippi River. In Belle Chasse, the highway crosses theGulf Intracoastal Waterway via two antiquated crossings: southbound traffic uses the 1955-vintageBelle Chasse Tunnel, a narrow crossing that does not allow passing; northbound traffic uses the 1967-vintageJudge Perez Bridge, avertical-lift bridge. LA 23 runs through the small rural towns of Jesuit Bend, Naomi, Myrtle Grove, West Pointe à la Hache, Port Sulphur, Nairn, Empire, Buras, Triumph, and Boothville. With the exception of the portion running through Port Sulphur, the entire highway is four lanes (although it is not controlled-access).
The highway is a critical hurricane evacuation route for thousands of inhabitants along the west bank of the Mississippi River.
At one time, LA 23 ran straight across theWestbank Expressway (U.S. Highway 90 Business), using Lafayette Street, 5th Street and Huey P. Long Avenue through downtown Gretna and crossing theJackson Avenue-Gretna Ferry ontoJackson Avenue in New Orleans.[2] By 1986, it had been rerouted, running along the Westbank Expresswayfrontage roads to Stumpf Boulevard and turning north on Stumpf and Franklin Avenue to end at Burmaster Street (LA 428).[3] The former LA 23 to 4th Street in downtown Gretna became an extension ofLA 18, while the three blocks beyond to the ferry (and Jackson Avenue in New Orleans) are now unnumbered. Before the 1950s, LA 23 went through Terrytown via present-day Behrman Highway (LA 428).
Twinning of the highway in Plaquemines Parish was begun byJudge Perez in the 1960s. The vertical lift bridge in Belle Chasse was added in 1968, and the Empire Jetty Bridge over Dollut Canal, a high-rise bridge, opened in 1976, replacing a 26-year-old lift bridge.
In Plaquemines Parish, sections of the original LA 23, since bypassed, are signed as Parish Road 11 (although some maps erroneously list these routes as LA-11), such as in Jesuit Bend and the area south of Port Sulphur through Empire, Buras, and Fort Jackson. Prior to Louisiana's 1955 highway renumbering, LA 23 through Plaquemines Parish was LA 31, and there are some bridges, such as the Bayou Barriere crossings in northern Belle Chasse, that still bear the original numbering.
As of 2019, the portion from U.S. Highway 90 Business to LA 428 is under agreement to be removed from the state highway system and transferred to local control.[4]
Before 2025, in Belle Chasse, the highway crossed theGulf Intracoastal Waterway via two antiquated crossings: southbound traffic used the 1955-vintageBelle Chasse Tunnel, a narrow crossing that does not allow passing; northbound traffic used the 1967-vintageJudge Perez Bridge, avertical-lift bridge. Both were replaced by the new tolledBelle Chasse Bridge, which opened for southbound traffic on August 5, 2024, and northbound traffic on March 17, 2025.[5]
| Parish | Location | mi[1] | km | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plaquemines | Venice | 0.0 | 0.0 | Jump Basin Road | Southern terminus; Local road continues southwest towardsTidewater |
| Empire | 19.6 | 31.5 | Bridge overBayou Long/Doullut Canal | ||
| Belle Chasse | 67.0 | 107.8 |  LA 406 (Woodland Highway) | Southern terminus of LA 406 | |
| 68.0 | 109.4 | Judge Perez Bridge (northbound)/Belle Chasse Tunnel (southbound) acrossGulf Intracoastal Waterway | |||
| 68.4 | 110.1 | LA 3017 (Engineers Road) | Southern terminus of LA 3017 | ||
| 68.6 | 110.4 | Bridge over Outfall Canal | |||
| Jefferson | | 69.1 | 111.2 | LA 428 (Behrman Highway) | Southern terminus of LA 428 |
| Gretna | 71.9 | 115.7 |  US 90 Bus. west (West Bank Expressway)LA 18 west (Lafayette Street) | South end of U.S. 90 Business concurrency (LA 23 uses service roads only); Exit 7 (U.S. 90 Business); Eastern terminus of LA 18; Partially unsigned junction | |
| 72.6 | 116.8 |  US 90 Bus. east (West Bank Expressway) –New Orleans | North end of U.S. 90 Business concurrency (LA 23 uses service roads only); Exit 8 (U.S. 90 Business); Junction includes incorrect signage | ||
| 73.1 | 117.6 |  LA 466 (Kepler Street) | Eastern terminus of LA 466 | ||
| 73.6 | 118.4 | LA 428 (Franklin Avenue, Burmaster Street) | Northern terminus | ||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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