Along US-82 in southwest Arkansas is a wild animal farm. Here is a half-horse half-zebra creature.

Some of the last cutouts in Mississippi. There is a US-45 somewhere, too.

Extra tall sunset, somewhere approaching Tupelo on old US-78.

A bird on a stop sign.

Following US-82 in southern Arkansas, and looking to the north at this railroad bridge.

I don’t think that’s quite what they intended to say.

More from the farm – here is a buffalo.

An actual zebra, and several other creatures.

Gotta keep up with that llama farm in Nebraska.

The trees haven’t even been cleared yet – but, someday, this will be I-69.

Yes, that tends to be the case…

Arkansas uses classic US highway shields.

“5 tracks” is rare enough – and here is one with button copy!

Several of the five tracks, and switch engine number 1156.

Somehow, in the other direction – there’s six tracks? I am not sure how the arithmetic works out.

An old reflector embedded in a US-82 bridge from the early 1930s. Unfortunately, it does not reflect particularly well anymore.

I do not know why this road has a T suffix.

Further along US-82 is this tank.

We’re in Mississippi now – specifically, at the Greenville train station.

Specialization is for insects.

US-82 has long been on the bypass around town, but I’ll take this shield any day.

Mississippi uses the classic shields even for suffixed routes. They use the wide shield for their one three-digit route: 278.

Vertical squirrel is vertical.

Mississippi is bringing the state name back to its interstate markers.

The missile tail on the arrow is a nice touch on this white guide sign.

Birds and power lines.

We’re on old US-78 heading east now.

A railroad overpass.

Sunset over interstate 22.

More interstate 22. We stop somewhere around here for today.

This is a glass cateye reflector sign. There are four of them, and they all date back to about 1936 when this bridge in New Orleans was opened.

The Milky Way over partly cloudy skies. Lights from Shreveport are providing the orange glow.

Classic 1960s-style shields.

In the last few years, Louisiana has really started getting rid of these.

This is what they are being replaced with – new black state route shields, too.

These right-of-way markers go back to the 1930s, if not before.

An old railroad bridge, somewhere along US-190.

Older route markers have a somewhat poor approximation to the state outline.

The most obscure exit to I-10 – a random dirt road. Do we find any state-named shields here? No, we do not. They are next to impossible to find in Louisiana.

Set the controls for the heart of the sun.

The first few miles of interstate 49 feature outline-shield green signs.

With very few exceptions, Louisiana stopped using state-named shields sometime in the late 1970s, so even the old and peeling examples will be neutered.

Louisiana tries its hand at wide shields. Bad idea.

More clouds, somewhere around Alexandria.

Heading into sunset, along I-49.

This may very well be the oldest I-49 shield in existence.

Getting close to sunset.

Nothing like driving straight into the sun. Finding the road is left as an exercise to the reader.

Here’s one in Shreveport. This sign was installed in 1993.

Some outline route 1 markers.

A rarely seen example of Louisiana’s custom font. They stopped using it sometime in the 1960s.

US-71 north of Shreveport is due to be upgraded to I-49 any day now.

US-71 heads into Arkansas.

Arkansas now has Clearview. And that’s all for the first day of this trip.

U.S. 84 shifted from its Main Street alignment through Collins onto a new four-lane bypass north of town. The old alignment was redesignated Mississippi 184. A new partial-cloverleaf interchange joins U.S. 49 with the relocated U.S. 84.

U.S. 49′s approach to Interstates 20 and 55 at Richland was upgraded to an expressway recently. The controlled-access route bypasses some of the businesses, now served by frontage roads, from the split with Old Highway 49 north to U.S. 49′s merge onto Interstate 20 west & 55 south.

Interstates 20 & 55 westbound near their split in south Jackson. Road work is underway presently to replace the westbound bridge over U.S. 51 / State Street.

Mississippi 7 joins Interstate 55 north from Grenada between Exits 206 and 211.

Several Mississippi state highways double as scenic routes. Where these designations exist, blue on white shields are used. This assembly lies along the northbound Interstate 55 off-ramp at Exit 227.

Interstate 69 northbound at its merge onto Interstate 55 north at Hernando. Interstate 55 and 69 now cosign northward to the Tennessee state line. Additionally all Interstate shields installed from late 2008 onwards will include the state-name.

Interstate 55 & 69 northbound signage at the Exit 291 (State Line Road / Main Street), the final Mississippi interchange. Upon entering Tennessee, Interstate 69 disappears with the exception of Future I-69 Corridor signs.

Interstate 240 west/north at the redesigned interchange with Interstate 40 east of downtown Memphis. This interchange originally included provisions for unconstructed Interstate 40 leading east to Overton Park. When Interstate 40 was cancelled through the parkland, the I-40 designation shifted to the northern half of Interstate 240. It was not until recent years that work redesigned the previous cloverleaf interchange to remove unused ramps and upgrade the movements between Interstates 40 & 240 to include high speed ramps. Pictured here is the new flyover carrying drivers from Interstate 240 onto Interstate 40 west.

Upgrades also took place at the Interstates 40 and 240 eastern junction. A new flyover was added for movements between I-40 west to I-240 west. A ramp stub is in place for further upgrades for the I-40 westbound ramp onto the beltway. In this scene I-40 exits itself via a one-lane left-hand ramp (Exit 12C) as Interstate 240 begins.

Entering the Exit 9 six-ramp partial-cloverleaf interchange with Mallory Avenue along Interstate 55 north in Memphis. The exit is currently closed as TNDOT is in the process of reconstructing the junction into a single point urban interchange (SPUI). Work commenced in 2008 and will be completed in 2010.

One of the most substandard connections along the Interstate system is that of the Interstate 55 cloverleaf interchange with Crump Boulevard in Memphis. The northbound mainline of I-55 utilizes a loop ramp from the freeway north onto Crump Boulevard west leading toward the Mississippi River Bridge. This scene looks at the I-55 northbound mainline at the Crump Boulevard southbound loop ramp. Fortunately TNDOT will be upgrading the interchange in the near future. Both Alternatives under study involve shifting the Interstate 55 mainline onto a new alignment skimming the southwestern quadrant of the current cloverleaf interchange.

Interstate 55 crosses the Mississippi between Memphis and West Memphis over the equally substandard Memphis & Arkansas Bridge. The cantilever span opened in 1949.

Westbound at the split of Interstate 40 to Little Rock and 55 north to Blytheville. Road work is currently underway at the merge of the two freeways ahead of Exit 279 to the east.

Northbound future Interstate 555 and U.S. 63 at the recently completed Exit 7 diamond interchange with Arkansas 135. There are no remaining at-grade intersections between Arkansas 135 and Interstate 55.

A sharp ramp carries drivers from Future Interstate 555 & U.S. 63 south onto Interstate 55 north. Arkansas 77 travels south from the directional cloverleaf interchange into Turrell.

The northbound beginning of Business Loop Interstate 55 near New Madrid, Missouri. This is the first business loop of I-55 in Missouri. Others exist further north at Cape Girardeau (Exit 93B), Jackson (Exit 99), Crystal City (Exit 174A) and Herculaneum (Exit 178).

This view looks eastward at the Arkansas State Line from the poorer Oklahoma pavement. This is technically the beginning of I-540, but there aren’t any signs to that effect. In fact, the first northbound I-540 shield does not appear until after the second interchange! The author thought Texas sucked at signing its interstate ends, but Arkansas takes the cake. Click any photos here for bigger ones.

As it goes around Fort Smith, 540 is fairly old and generally placed within a narrow right of way with a jersey barrier median. The exit numbers on this southern section increase from north to south – however on the northern section they increase from south to north. The full bypass section was open in 1977.

Fort Smith is the second largest city in Arkansas and sits along the Oklahoma border. The city is a big manufacturing center, and has plants from companies like Whirlpool, Gerber, Planters Peanuts, and Trane. Due to the loss of US manufacturing jobs overseas, however, the local economy is in somewhat of a slump. But hey, the upside is that Fort Smith has been named by Forbes magazine as the cheapest US city to live in. This view looks north at the end of the southern section. 540 is signed as continuing north along I-40, but once you get on I-40 it is not cosigned.

The northern section of I-540 is much prettier than the southern section. This stretch of mountainous roadway features a few 200′ high viaducts. In November 1997, AASHTO approved Arkansas’ request to extend I-540 northward to the Fayetteville / Bentonville area. The freeway was built in sections as US 71, and on January 8, 1999 it was signed as I-540. The 32 mile segment ran north from I-40 to US 71 Business / US 62 interchange north of Fayetteville.

Speaking of high viaducts, the views from the tops of them generally look down into the valleys below. In a few scenes, such as this one near Mountainburg, the old route of US 71 can be seen just to the east.

The Bobby Hopper Tunnel is the only freeway tunnel in Arkansas. It is .3 miles long and opened in 1999. It was named for the then director of the Arkansas Highway Commission.

Northwestern Arkansas has a metro-area population of about 350,000. It is home to the corporate headquarters for Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods, and JB Hunt Transportation. Due to the presence of the world’s largest retailer, other major corporations, like General Mills, Unilever, Procter and Gamble, have offices here. This view looks north at the Fayetteville skyline. The entire northern section is named after former state representative John Paul Hammerschmidt.

I-540 is sort of an odd duck as it winds through Northwestern Arkansas. Large, new office parks and sprawling corporate campuses sit alongside the freeway, and huge hotels for such a rural area. The freeway is extremely busy and could probably use a good old fashioned widening. (yeah, I know the picture doesn’t make it look busy, but it is!)

This is the last northbound 540 shield, before the Bentonville exit. It dissapears here and no mention is made of the interstate at the AR 72 exit. From here northbound, it is signed as US 71 and remains a freeway for a bit longer.

The view below looks at the end of the US 71 freeway at Bella Vista. Bella Vista started out as a resort in the 1910s, and after the 60s essentially became a huge subdivision governed by an HOA. In 2005, the area had a 13% increase in building permits over the previous year and decided to incorporate. The big story in 2006 was the opening of a Lowe’s Hardware store, to service all of those new houses. There are numerous vacation rentals in the area and Bella Vista gets busy in the summer with tourists.

Bella Vista marks the only spot from I-44 to I-40 that is not a freeway. The traffic lights through here are mind numbing, numerous, and long. There are a lot of strip shopping centers and the like in the area. Arkansas and Missouri are currently planning a Bella Vista bypass. The road was approved by Arkansas on April 12, 2007, as a toll freeway. It is projected to cost about $211 million. The toll road is tentatively scheduled for completion in December 2010, and will eventually be considered to become a portion of Interstate 49.

AR 549 is an all concrete facility, with lanes 2×2 but a small 3×3 section at the northern end. Here the driver has a choice of taking AR 245 south into Texas or north staying in Arkansas. Both routes go to I-30. What the signs don’t tell you is that the northbound choice puts you on an expressway while south puts you on a (northbound!) freeway.

The southern end of AR 549 puts traffic onto the 2-lane US 71 in a half diamond configuration. This is about four miles north of the Louisiana state line. These photos are from a few months ago, but no construction was evident at the southern end whatsoever. This southernmost stretch of the freeway opened in late 2005.

The 29 mile stretch of freeway is fairly dull. It’s by no means boring but the sprawl of gas stations and Cracker Barrels has not made it out here yet. That and the brand newness of the road, and complete absence of traffic makes it seem a little bit off in some way. I suppose it is “what a rural American freeway ought to be” rather than “what a rural American freeway is”.

This is a photo of the southern end of AR 245 in 2001. AR 245 forms a loop around Texarkana connecting with US 59 and AR 549 to the south. It has a few at grade intersections, none of which are signalized. Here, I made a map – (click for larger)

The new section of AR 245 is very nice. Headed west (it’s signed south) from the northern end of AR 549 you hit Texas after about a mile and a half. I’m not sure if this is the future route of I-49 or not, or if it’s going to go around to the east. There are absolutely no Future I-49 signs anywhere in Texarkana. At least, not on any of the major roads or freeways.

After crossing into Texas, AR 245 becomes Loop 151. Loop 151 is the newest part of the Texarkana loop, and thus is graced with concrete gantries.

Loop 151 turns north and ends seamlessly into US 59. US 59 is a freeway on the west side of Texarkana and is the oldest freeway in town besides IH 30. In 2001 and 2003, this freeway had signs up proclaiming it at future I-69 – those signs are all gone these days. Texarkana is well poised on the future interstate highway system with I-49, I-69, and I-130 all possible designations for the area’s freeways. Still, there is just the one, IH 30.

(it’s really not twice as nice, that’s just a cheap marketing ploy)

Arkansas has been routinely voted as having the worst interstates in the nation, or is usually in the lower 5. In the mid 90s Arkansas recognized the need to fix their interstate highways, which need about $1 billion in work. A bond issue was sent to voters and soundly defeated. In 1999 the state government came up with a solution of new bonds backed with state highway money, and gas tax increases phased in over several years – and the voters approved it. The state can rehabilitate over 100 miles of interstates a year, and will have most of them fixed by 2008. Texas would have just slapped tollbooths on them. Anyway, I brought this up because often at the Arkansas state line on an interstate the orange cones begin. This view looks east on I-30 as it enters Arkansas, it’s currently being upgraded and repaved.

The other road thing of interest in the area is State Line Avenue. US 71 is carried on old slab concrete and asphalt right down the state line. The city’s main post office is right in the middle of the line. It is the only federal building in the country to sit in two states.

Signs on the northbound side of state line are the Arkansas style…

While on the southbound side, they are TxDot.