Interstate 55 in Mississippi

 

I-55
Get started Osyka
End south aven
Length 290 mi
Length 467 km
Route
Louisiana

  • 1 Osyka
  • 4 Chatawa
  • 8 Gillsburg
  • 10 Magnolia
  • 13 Fernwood
  • 15 South McComb
  • 17 McComb
  • 18 North McComb
  • 20 Summit
  • 24 Lake Dixie Springs
  • 30 Bogue Chitto
  • 38 South Brookhaven
  • 40 Brookhaven
  • 42 North Brookhaven
  • 48 Wesson
  • 51 Beauregard
  • 56 Martinsville
  • 59 South Hazelhurst
  • 61 Hazelhurst
  • 65 Gallman
  • 68 South Crystal Springs
  • 72 North Crystal Springs
  • 78 Terry
  • Jackson: 81-103
  • 81 Wynndale Road
  • 85 Byram
  • 88 Elton Road
  • 90A Savannah Street
  • 90B Daniel Lake Blvd
  • 92A McDowell Road
  • 92C → Shreveport
  • 45A Gallatin Street
  • 45B State Street
  • 94 → Birmingham
  • 96A Pearl Street
  • 96B High Street
  • 96C Fortification Street
  • 98A Woodrow Wilson Avenue
  • 98B Lakeland Drive
  • 99 Meadowbrook Road
  • 100 Northside Drive
  • 102A Briarwood Drive
  • 102B Beasley Road
  • 103 County Line Road
  • 104 → Jackson Bypass
  • 105A Natchez Trace Parkway
  • 105B Ridgeland
  • 108 Madison
  • 112 Gluckstadt
  • 114 Sowell Road
  • 118 Nissan Drive
  • 119 Canton
  • 124 North Canton
  • 133 Vaughn
  • 139 Pickens
  • 144 Lexington
  • 146 Goodman
  • 150 Holmes County State Park
  • 156 Durant
  • 164 West
  • 174 Vaiden
  • 185 Winona
  • 195 Duck Hill
  • 199 Elliott
  • 206 Grenada
  • 208 North Grenada
  • 211 Coffeeville
  • 220 Coffeeville
  • 227 Oakland
  • 233 Enid
  • 237 Pope
  • 243 Batesville
  • 246 North Batesville
  • 252 Sardis
  • 257 Como
  • 263 South Senatobia
  • 265 Holly Springs
  • 271 Cold water
  • 280 Hernando
  • 283 → Tunica
  • 284 Nesbit Road
  • 287 Church Road
  • 289 South Aven
  • 291 South Aven

Tennessee

Interstate 55 or I -55 is an Interstate Highway in the US state of Mississippi. It is the state’s main north-south route, although it serves only one major city, the capital Jackson. US 51 runs parallel to I-55. The terminus at Southaven is a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. The stretch in Mississippi is 467 kilometers long.

  • ACT-TEST-CENTERS: Offers a list of four year colleges and universities within Mississippi, including public and private schools of Mississippi.

Travel directions

I-55 at Jackson.

I-55 at Jackson.

I-55 at Ridgeland, just north of Jackson, off the Natchez Trace Parkway.

I-55 in Northern Mississippi

Interstate 55 in Louisiana crosses the Mississippi border at Osyka, and begins a 150-mile road to the state capital Jackson. The highway leads through forests, which are occasionally interrupted by open fields. Also in this state, US 51 runs parallel to I-55. At McComb, US 98 from Hattiesburg joins I-55 a few miles away, where US 98 continues west to Natchez. The I-55 has a fairly wide median strip, overgrown with trees. At Brookhaven you cross the US 84, which runs from Laurel in the east, to Natchez in the west. The landscape remains monotonous, with forests and fields. After about 150 kilometers you reach the capital Jackson, a city with 177,000 inhabitants, and 530,000 in the metropolitan area.

One crosses here first Interstate 20, which comes from Shreveport, Louisiana and Vicksburg. After this, both highways briefly double-numbered, then I-55 exits north, and I-20 continues east, to Meridian, and Birmingham, Alabama. The highway runs east of the center and has 2×3 lanes. This route has quite a few exits, and also has 2×4 lanes through the suburbs. On the north side of Jackson, Interstate 220 . joinsin, which forms the western perimeter of the city. The highway here has a number of kilometers of 2×4 lanes. After this one leaves the agglomeration and the road narrows to 2×2 lanes. One comes close to Barnett Reservoir, a large reservoir east of the highway.

North of Jackson, the area is less heavily wooded and has more open fields. One still encounters an exit fairly often, but there are no villages directly along the highway, they are all located on the parallel US 51. At Winona one crosses the US 82, a four-lane main road between Greenville and Columbus, and therefore a major east-west route in this part of Mississippi. After this, another densely wooded area begins. At Grenada you pass Grenada Lake, a reservoir. At Batesville one crosses US 278, a main road between Clarksville and Tupelo. There are 2 more reservoirs here. However, these reservoirs are not very deep due to the lack of height differences. At Coldwater you cross a side arm of the reservoir Arkabutla Lake. At Hernando, Interstate turns 69part of a future highway between Indianapolis and Texas. However, only small parts of this were built, including this part after Banks. This leads to Southaven, a suburb of Memphis, where Interstate 55 continues into Tennessee.

  • ANYCOUNTYPRIVATESCHOOLS: Provides latest rankings of graduate business programs in Mississippi, covering MBA program and PhD in business of Mississippi.

History

Interstate 55 is built parallel to US 51 for its entire length, which previously handled through traffic from New Orleans to Memphis. The exact opening dates of I-55 are unknown, but the first sections opened in the late 1950s or 1960s, south and north of Jackson. During the 1960s, most of it opened up, first in northern Mississippi, later in the south. The last link opened about 1974 north of Jackson between Richland and Durant.

Opening history

The dates below are indicative and based on historical maps.

From Unpleasant Length Opening
Exit 78 Exit 92 23 km ~1960
Exit 98 Exit 103 8 km ~1960
exit 8 Exit 20 19 km ~1962
Exit 72 Exit 78 10 km ~1962
Exit 243 Exit 291 77 km ~1962
Exit 103 Exit 119 26 km ~1964
Exit 227 Exit 243 26 km ~1964
Exit 211 Exit 227 26 km ~1965
exit 0 exit 8 13 km ~1967
exit 61 Exit 72 18 km ~1967
Exit 119 Exit 124 8 km ~1967
Exit 206 Exit 211 8 km ~1967
Exit 20 exit 61 66 km ~1968
Exit 174 Exit 206 51 km ~1968
Exit 92 Exit 98 10 km ~1970
Exit 124 Exit 144 32 km ~1973
Exit 156 Exit 174 29 km ~1973
Exit 144 Exit 156 19 km ~1974

Widening

Near the border with Tennessee, I-55 has been widened in the southern suburbs of Memphis. The northernmost 4 kilometers was drastically widened from 2×2 to 2×5 lanes between 2004 and 2007.

North of Jackson, I-55 runs through Ridgeland, a fast-growing employment-rich suburb along I-55. In 2002-2003, a small section of 2.5 kilometers north of I-220 was widened from 2×2 to 2×4 lanes for this purpose. Around 2007, a 4-kilometre section was widened to 2×3 lanes to Madison, but this was further widened to 2×4 lanes with frontage roads shortly afterwards, which was formally opened on April 24, 2015.

South of Jackson, a seven-mile section of I-55 between Byram and I-20 was widened to 2×3 lanes between 2013 and 2018. The extra lanes opened on August 15, 2018.

Traffic intensities

17,000 vehicles drive daily on the Louisiana border, after which the intensities towards Jackson gradually increase from 20,000 to 30,000 vehicles per day, rising to 52,000 vehicles in southern Jackson. The dual-numbering I-20 counts 119,000 vehicles per day and 137,000 vehicles near downtown Jackson, Mississippi’s busiest stretch of road. Through the north of Jackson, traffic volumes are around 100,000 vehicles per day for a long time, north of Madison the volumes quickly drop to 50,000 vehicles and 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles on the long rural stretch through northern Mississippi. Only close to the Memphis region do the intensities rise again, to 34,000 vehicles at Hernando and 60,000 to 73,000 vehicles in the southern suburbs of Memphis.

Lane Configuration

From Unpleasant lanes Comments
exit 0 exit 85 2×2
exit 85 Exit 104 2×3 Jackson
Exit 104 Exit 108 2×4 Jackson
Exit 108 Exit 289 2×2
Exit 289 Exit 291 2×5 South Avenue (Memphis)

Interstate 55 in Mississippi