Louisiana Highway 16
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by Louisiana DOTD | ||||
| Length: | 110.72 mi (178.19 km) | |||
| Existed: | 1955 renumbering – present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end: |
 LA 22 near Sorrento | |||
  I-12 / US 190 in Denham Springs  I-55 / US 51 in Amite  LA 10 / LA 25 in Franklinton | ||||
| East end: |
 LA 21 in Sun | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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Louisiana Highway 16 (LA 16) is a state highway in Louisiana. It runs from west to east for 110.72 miles (178.19 km).
Route description
From the east, LA 16 begins in Sun at a junction with LA 21 and heads west northwest into Washington Parish. At an intersection with LA 60, LA 16 turns north-northwest towards Franklinton, where the highway merges with LA 10 and LA 25. All three highways split from each other outside of the city limits, and LA 16 turns westward. In Tangipahoa Parish, LA 16 intersects U.S. Highway 51 in Amite and Interstate 55 just west of the city. LA 43 shortly merges with LA 16 and then splits with LA 16 in Montpelier. From Montpelier, LA 16 shortly merges with LA 63 and then splits from the highway after approximately 9.5 miles (15.3 km). LA 16 then heads due south (despite the even number, generally signifying an east–west state highway in Louisiana), running through Denham Springs and then turning southeastward without intersecting Interstate 12 (a lower-level state highway, LA 3002, also known as South Range Avenue, does intersect I-12 within a mile or the LA 16 overpass, but no signage on I-12, westbound or eastbound, explains how to get from I-12 to LA 16). After crossing I-12, LA 16 merges with LA 42 in Port Vincent and then splits with the highway east of the city. LA 16 continues through French Settlement before ending at a junction with LA 22.
LA 16 is, in the aggregate, a concatenation of roads which were laced together in the 1955 Louisiana Highway renumbering. Although the one number (16) seems logical from one contiguous point to another (such as between Amite and Franklinton), under routine circumstances no person of right mind would drive LA 16 from French Settlement to Sun as a supposèdly direct route.
History
In 2008, approximately a 3–4-mile (4.8–6.4 km) stretch of LA 16 in the Watson (Denham Springs), Louisiana area was widened to a four-lane highway, thus expanding the former two-lane highway. This was in response to the large amount of daily vehicle traffic the area experienced in the past decade (Watson was at one time in the early 2000s the largest growing area in the state of Louisiana).[citation needed]