LA 182 is a state highway that runs a circuitous route from just north of Opelousas

Opelousas, Louisiana

Opelousas is a city in and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies at the junction of Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190. The population was 22,860 at the 2000 census. Although the 2006 population estimate was 23,222, a 2004 annexation should put the city's...

 to Raceland

Raceland, Louisiana

Raceland is a census-designated place on Bayou Lafourche in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 10,224 at the 2000 census...

. Most of the route was formerly part of the Old Spanish Trail

Old Spanish Trail (auto trail)

The Old Spanish Trail auto highway once spanned the country with a full of roadway from ocean to ocean crossing 67 counties and eight states along the Southern border of the United States. Work on the auto highway began in 1915 and, by the 1920s, the trail linked St. Augustine, Florida, to San...

, and the road is called such in many places to this day.

History

The original 1955 designated route of LA 182 was far shorter than its present extent; the original extent of the route comprised the current northernmost section, from LA 29 at Whiteville to LA 10 at Baggs (the current northern end of the modern LA 10/182 concurrency). The route was first extended south ca. 1965, as US 167 between Washington and Lafayette was modernized onto a parallel expressway alignment which was eventually absorbed into the southernmost part of the route of I-49. Later as US 90 between Lafayette and Morgan City was upgraded onto an expressway alignment through the late 1960s and 1970s, LA 182 was gradually extended along its old route through Lafayette southeastward, growing year by year as the expressway was gradually extended eastward. The final extension of LA 182, to Raceland, occurred in 1999 with the completion of the US 90 freeway between Morgan City and Raceland.