| US 64 | |||
| Get started | Memphis | ||
| End | ducktown | ||
| Length | 391 mi | ||
| Length | 629 km | ||
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According to CITYPOPULATIONREVIEW.COM, US 64 is a US Highway in the US state of Tennessee. The road forms an east-west route through the south of the state, from the Arkansas border through Memphis and Chattanooga to the North Carolina border. US 64 is 629 kilometers long in Tennessee.
Travel directions
US 64/74 in eastern Tennessee.
US 64 near Pulaski.
US 64 in Arkansas comes from West Memphis and crosses the Mississippi River. US 64 then forms an east-west route through the south of the state, along the borders of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. The route passes through the metropolitan areas of Memphis and Chattanooga and through numerous smaller regional towns. The route is largely a divided highway, partly because I-40 runs too far north to be an alternative. One crosses the Tennessee River twice, and the US 64 runs over the so-called Monteagle Grade, a steep slope of the I-24. US 64 in North Carolina then continues towards Murphy.
History
According to ASK4BEAUTY, US 64 is one of the original US Highways of 1926, but at the time it did not run through Tennessee, its eastern terminus was Conway, Arkansas at the time. In the period 1930-1933, the route was extended eastward in several phases, first to Marion, Arkansas, just before the border with Tennessee, then to Chattanooga, Tennessee and since 1933 US 64 ends on the Atlantic coast at Wilmington, North Carolina. This created the entire route through Tennessee.
Routes between Memphis and Chattanooga
US 64 is one of the few major city connections in Tennessee that is not an Interstate Highway, with I-40 built north through Nashville and Knoxville, leaving US 64 a fairly important corridor for east-west traffic. However, US 72 further south through Mississippi and Alabama is also an alternate route for traffic between Memphis and Chattanooga. The fastest route between Memphis and Chattanooga today is via I-40, I-840, and I-24. However, US 72 is the shortest route, and US 64 is the most time-consuming.
Memphis – Chattanooga
US 64 at Selmer.
US 64 east of Savannah.
Over the years, the entire stretch of US 64 between Memphis and I-24 at Pelham has been widened for 420 kilometers to 4 lanes, largely as a 2×2 divided highway, but also partially as a 5-lane center turn . lane, especially in areas with more built-up areas. Bypasses have been constructed in a number of places, but US 64 has no real freeway features anywhere.
In western Tennessee, the oldest 2×2 section can be found between Memphis and Somerville. This follows the general trend of 4-lane US Highways to widen the approach roads from larger towns first and later the rural stretches. The section from Somerville to Bolivar was widened to 2×2 lanes in the late 1990s. The stretch from Bolivar to Selmer was widened to 4 lanes in the mid to late 2000s.
The Selmer bypass was constructed in the period 1986-1988. In the early 2000s, US 64 between Selmer and Adamsville was widened to 2×2 lanes and between Adamsville and Crump from 2 to 5 lanes. In 1930, the Tennessee River Bridge opened at Savannah, which was replaced by a modern 4-lane bridge in 1980-1981, then the section between Crump and Savannah was widened to 2×2 lanes, as the first 2×2 stretch in the region.
The stretch between Savannah and Waynesboro was more difficult to widen, this area is very hilly and required some excavations. The Waynesboro bypass was constructed between 1996 and 1999, as well as a 2×2 section west of Waynesboro. For some time this was the only 2×2 stretch between Savannah and Waynesboro, it was not until around 2010 that longer stretches between the two places were widened to 2×2 lanes, the last section was widened to 2×2 lanes near Olivehill around 2016. This was the last stretch of US 64 between Memphis and Chattanooga to be widened.
In the late 1990s, the widening between Waynesboro and Lawrenceburg began. This was done in many phases and required a new bypass around Lawrenceburg and a significant realignment west of Lawrenceburg which opened around 2012. The Lawrenceburg bypass opened in two phases, the eastern section opened in 2010 and the western section in 2014. In the period 2008-2011, the section from Lawrenceburg to Pulaski was widened to 2×2 lanes. Older is Pulaski’s bypass, which opened in the early 90s. At the end of the 1990s, the section from Pulaski to Fayetteville was widened to 2×2 lanes, requiring several viaducts.
In the period 2007-2011, the section from Fayetteville to Winchester was widened to 2×2 lanes. In the period 1991-1993, the 2×2 lane section between Winchester and I-24 at Pelham was constructed. The Winchester diversion followed around 1995.
Chattanooga
The bridge over the Tennessee River and Nickajack Lake west of Chattanooga opened to traffic in 1929. Between 2012 and 2014 this bridge was replaced by a wider bridge. The new bridge opened to traffic on November 7, 2014.
In Chattanooga, US 64 crosses Missionary Ridge, a ridge to the east of the city. This location is known for the Battle of Missionary Ridge during the American Civil War in 1863. In 1913 the first road tunnel through the ridge was opened, through which US 64 has passed since its creation in 1926. A second tube was commissioned in 1950. West of the tunnels is a grade-separated intersection with Dodds Avenue, also believed to have been constructed in 1950.
Eastern Tennessee
A bypass has been constructed near Cleveland for both east-west and north-south traffic on US 11 and US 64. The bypass is mainly part of US 64. The first part of this between I-75 and US 11 on the south side of Cleveland opened in October 1966, at the same time as I-75. In November 1970 an extension opened east to Blue Springs Road and in May 1972 to old US 64 east of Cleveland, completing the city’s bypass for US 64 traffic. Presumably in the 1970s, US 64 between Cleveland and Ocoee was also widened to a 2×2 divided highway. In the 1980s, the easternmost section between Ducktown and the North Carolina border was widened to 2×2 lanes.
