| Louisiana Highway 3260 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by Louisiana DOTD | ||||
| Existed: | 1980s widening of US 51 in Hammond – present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end: | (North Morrison Boulevard) | |||
| East end: | (West Thomas Street / Baton Rouge Highway) | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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Louisiana Highway 3260 (LA 3260) is one of the shortest state highways in Louisiana (or, for that matter, in any state). It is basically a long ramp or a connector between US 190 and US 51 in Tangipahoa Parish for motorists who do not want to continue to the intersection of those two U.S. highways, that intersection being several hundred feet south of LA 3260's intersection with US 51. With exception of additional turn lanes at its intersection with US 51, LA 3260 is a two-lane highway for the entirety of its 2,100 feet (640 m). LA 3260 is entirely within the boundaries of Hammond and provides an alternative to LA 3234 as egress for Southeastern Louisiana University's campus. Locally LA 3260 is widely known as part of West Church Street or even as West Church Street Extension.
From the west, LA 3260 begins at US 190 between I-55 and US 190's movement into an "S" curve which puts US 190's intersection with US 51 hundreds of feet south of where LA 3260 intersects US 51. Traffic eastbound on US 190 (much of this traffic just having exited I-55) moves into US 190's eastbound left lane and crosses the median through an opening between two traffic islands. LA 3260 then takes the trajectory that US 190 would have if US 190 were straight. At the intersection with US 51, motorists eastbound on LA 3260 (which is also West Church Street) have the option of turning north or south on US 51 or of continuing straight ahead eastbound on West Church Street. In the opposite direction, westbound traffic on West Church Street and traffic which turns from US 51 to go west on LA 3260 must stop at US 190; a 1980s attempt to let a yield sign suffice resulted in accidents, and the state did not want to appropriate money for an acceleration lane.
Although LA 3260 appears inauspicious nowadays, it has had an ambitious past. It was the original track of US 190, from back when US 190 was Louisiana Highway 7 prior to the 1955 renumbering of state highways in Louisiana. In turn, that Louisiana Highway 7 was part of the early 20th-century concept to link state highways across the southern tier of the United States to form a coast-to-coast Jefferson Davis Highway. Louisiana Highway 7, from Baton Rouge, thus entered Hammond from the west on Church Street before jogging south to circumvent the Hammond train Depot and continue to Covington. For a time after US 190 was pieced together from state highways, LA 3260 had the number "LA 190" but possibly never or only briefly bore such signs.