West end: LA 70 west of Convent Parishes: St. James | East end: LA 641 in Gramercy Length 22.2 km | |
 | ||
Parish St. James Parish, Louisiana | ||
Louisiana Highway 3125 (LA 3125) is a state highway in Louisiana that serves St. James Parish. It spans 13.6 miles (21.9 km) in a northwest to southeast direction. It parallels LA 44 along the east bank of the Mississippi River, providing a much shorter inland bypass of the River Road throughout St. James Parish. It is bannered in all four cardinal directions depending upon the part of the route.
Contents
Map of LA-3125, Louisiana, USA
Route description
LA 3125 is the eastbank counterpart to LA-3127; however, it does not span the same area as the longer westbank route. It serves two lanes of traffic in its entire length, and it was built in the late 1970s and early 1980s. From the northwest, LA 3125 beings at a junction at LA 70 just north of the Sunshine Bridge at a traffic light. The route is largely secluded through the Convent area, traveling southeast and east, intersecting LA 3214. The road also intersects LA 642, which traverses between Paulina and Grand Point. Following this intersection, the road takes a northeast trajectory, traversing through the northern outskirts of Paulina, Lutcher, and Gramercy. LA 3125 intersects LA 3274 (which was once LA 20 before completion of the Gramercy Bridge) between Gramercy and Lutcher. In addition, LA 3125 is also cosigned with LA 641 for the last, small section of its route. Its eastern terminus is at the intersection of LA 3213 and LA 641 just south of Airline Highway and just north of the Gramercy Bridge.
History
Originally, LA 3125 was part of a failed project called the Acadian Thruway, a tollway which would have spanned from Gramercy, LA to Lafayette, providing an alternative route between Lafayette and New Orleans but excluding Baton Rouge. In 1953, the project came into fruition but was scrapped with the establishment of the Interstate Highway Act of 1956, as that law funded Interstate 10. Despite the abandonment of the Acadian Thruway, elements of the plan, such as the Sunshine Bridge, a inner route between Gramercy and Convent (LA 3125), and a four-lane road from the Sunshine Bridge to Donaldsonville (present-day LA 3089) were constructed.
Major junctions
The entire highway is in St. James Parish.