Louisiana Highway 141

Louisiana Highway 141 (LA 141) is a state highway located in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. It exists in two disconnected sections totaling 4.07 mi along Point Clair Road within the city of St. Gabriel.

The route travels through a sparsely populated area along the east bank levee of the Mississippi River opposite the town of White Castle. It is located on either side of a sharp bend in the river known as Point Clair, which is bypassed by LA 75. The southern portion of LA 141 serves the Gillis W. Long Center operated by the Louisiana Army National Guard. Historically the facility served as the Carville National Leprosarium and today contains the National Hansen's Disease Museum. LA 141 also served to connect LA 75 with the White Castle Ferry until its permanent closure in June 2013.

Route description


From the south, LA 141 begins at an intersection with LA 75 in an area within St. Gabriel known as Carville. From this intersection, LA 75 turns north from Point Clair Road onto Martin Luther King Parkway while LA 141 continues straight ahead in a southwest direction along the Mississippi River levee. After passing in front of the Gillis W. Long Center, state maintenance ends, and a private gravel road continues around the bend in the river known as Point Clair.

4.5 mi later, state maintenance picks up again at the end of the gravel road. LA 141 proceeds northeast along the river to a second intersection with LA 75, which cuts across the Point Clair bend.

Route classification and data
The route is classified by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (La DOTD) as a rural local road, except for the portion that connected LA 75 with the White Castle Ferry, which is designated as a rural minor collector. Its average daily traffic volume in 2013 has been reported as follows: 1,590 from the overall southern terminus to the entrance of the Gillis W. Long Center; and 1,210 to the overall northern terminus. LA 141 is an undivided two-lane highway for its entire length and has a posted speed limit of 45 mph between the former ferry landing and the end of state maintenance.

The southern portion of LA 141 is a small part of the ten-state Great River Road, which is designated as a National Scenic Byway.

Pre-1955 route numbering
In the original Louisiana Highway system in use between 1921 and 1955, the modern LA 141 corridor was designated as State Route 410.

Route 410 was created in 1928 by an act of the state legislature. It originally existed as a loop off of Route 63, traversing the sharp bend in the Mississippi River occupied by the former leper colony. Route 63, like the modern LA 75, cut across the bend between Carville and St. Gabriel. The route remained largely the same prior to the 1955 Louisiana Highway renumbering, experiencing only minor alterations due to reconstruction of the river levee.

Post-1955 route history
LA 141 was created in 1955 as a direct renumbering of State Route 410.

At this time, the route was still continuous, looping off of what was then LA 30. In the mid-1960s, LA 30 was moved onto a new alignment set back from the river between Baton Rouge and St. Gabriel. LA 75 was extended over the former alignment, replacing LA 30 as both the northern and southern terminus of LA 141.

In recent years, the community of St. Gabriel was incorporated, and the entire route of LA 141 is now within the city limits. The middle section of the route containing a gravel surface was removed from the state highway system by the 1990s and today runs through private property.

Future
La DOTD is currently engaged in a program that aims to transfer about 5000 mi of state-owned roadways to local governments over the next several years. Under this plan of "right-sizing" the state highway system, the northern segment of LA 141 is proposed for deletion as it does not meet a significant interurban travel function.