Louisiana Highway 45

Louisiana Highway 45
Route of LA 45 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by Louisiana DOTD
Length	22.081 mi[1] (35.536 km)
Existed	1955 renumbering–present
Major junctions
South end	Dead end at Bayou Barataria in Lafitte
Major intersections	LA 3134 in Jean Lafitte LA 3134 in Estelle US 90 Bus. / I-910 / Future I-49 in Marrero
North end	LA 18 in Marrero
Location
Country	United States
State	Louisiana
Parishes	Jefferson
Highway system
Louisiana State Highway System Interstate US State Scenic
← LA 44 → LA 46

Louisiana Highway 45 (LA 45) is a state highway located in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. It runs 22.08 miles (35.53 km) in a north–south direction from a dead end at Bayou Barataria in Lafitte to a junction with LA 18 in Marrero.

The route connects Marrero, an unincorporated suburb of New Orleans, with several small communities located along Bayou Barataria, including the town of Jean Lafitte. It also provides access to the Barataria Unit of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, a protected area of environmental and cultural significance which, among its many functions, features walking trails through its vast swamps and marshes.

Roughly halfway along its route, LA 45 and LA 3134 share a high-level bridge across a section of Bayou Barataria that serves as a link in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Near its northern terminus, LA 45 has an interchange with U.S. Highway 90 Business (US 90 Bus.), an elevated freeway traversing the communities of Jefferson Parish located on the west bank of the Mississippi River.

LA 45 was designated in the 1955 Louisiana Highway renumbering from a portion of former State Route 30. Around 1980, a nine-mile (14 km) section of the route between Crown Point and Estelle was bypassed for through traffic in favor of the newly constructed LA 3134 (Leo Kerner/Lafitte Parkway, originally Lafitte-Larose Highway). In the future, most of this mileage is proposed to be eliminated from the state highway system by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (La DOTD).