Ancient interchanges on I-20 in western Mississippi

[Tom958]

Recently I drove I-20 through Mississippi (and Louisiana, and to Tyler, TX) for what might as well have been the first time. It was a surprisingly interesting trip all in all, but the most interesting aspect was the presence of two pre-Interstate interchanges, at Bovina and at MS 22 near Edwards. Pre-Interstate freeways that were incorporated into the Interstate system are far from rare, even including a few in the rural South. However, these interchanges have the dated bridge design and the narrow median only at the interchanges-- the sections of I-20 between have bridges of later design and a standard width (per Google Earth) of 56-60 feet. Not quite the 64 feet of later Mississippi Interstates, but more than the 36-40 feet of early rural freeways in Georgia and the Carolinas.

Uglybridges.com dates the bridges at those two interchanges were built in 1955, as were the bridges carrying I-20 over US 80 eastbound and old MS 27. All the others from Vicksburg to Jackson are c. 1959-61, even the other half of the I-20-US 80 interchange! The only explanation I can see for this is that work on a Vicksburg-Jackson US 80 freeway was started in the pre-Interste era, then put on hold for four years or so. Is that what happened?

[Duke87]

Historic Aerials has an image of the area from 1961, and what it shows is enlightening:

- the Bovina interchange (exit 11) itself is in service, however the road defaults back onto the old alignment of US 80 shortly to the west (where eastbound I-20 comes right up against it), and the section of interstate to the west is still under construction.
- shortly east of the interchange, the eastbound roadway ends and two way traffic operates on what is now the westbound roadway. This continues to shortly west of exit 15, where the eastbound roadway begins again and traffic moves onto it. No construction to twin the roadway between these two points is visible.
- the eastbound roadway ends again shortly east of exit 15, with two way traffic on the westbound roadway resuming. No twinning construction visible here either.
- exit 19 (Edwards) is past the edge of the image so we can't see what happens there.

Further west is even more interesting:
- there is a "super 2" ish roadway that follows the current alignment of I-20 from roughly the current location of exit 1C (it was continuous with what's now N. Frontage Road heading off towards the river) though to old (then current) highway 27.
- one bridge over old highway 27 was in place at the time with two way traffic on it. Traffic is shunted off of what's now the eastbound offramp at exit 4A, the rest of that interchange is under construction.
- the roadway has intersections along it and only one other overpass, at Halls Ferry Rd. The original overpass is not still there today, that whole area has since been massively reconfigured.

So basically it looks like there are two things at work here:
- Mississippi had built a two lane not-freeway bypass of Vicksburg, and a couple of its structures were reused for I-20.
- between Bovina and Edwards, a segment of freeway grade roadway for US 80 had been built, but they only built both roadways at the interchanges, elsewhere they built one roadway with provision for future twinning

What this doesn't answer is why exit 15 lacks the narrow median of exits 11 and 19 when all three appear to have been constructed contemporaneously. The lack of twinning except at interchanges does, however, perhaps suggest that 11 and 19 were built narrower in order to shorten the necessary overpass length, as a cost cutting measure (i.e. the same reason they only built one roadway at first - they did what they had money for and left the rest for later).

[Tom958]

I forgot about historicaerials.com. How embarrassing. Still, though, I wish they had a shot from 1958 or so.

What this doesn't answer is why exit 15 lacks the narrow median of exits 11 and 19 when all three appear to have been constructed contemporaneously. The lack of twinning except at interchanges does, however, perhaps suggest that 11 and 19 were built narrower in order to shorten the necessary overpass length, as a cost cutting measure (i.e. the same reason they only built one roadway at first - they did what they had money for and left the rest for later).

But the two weren't built contemporaneously. Bovina Road and MS 22 were completed in 1956, Henry Lake Road in 1959. At this point, I think it's more likely that a new two-lane road, designed for twinning and conversion to a freeway was built between Bovina and MS 22, with an at-grade intersection at Henry Lake Road. When the Interstate act passed, Mississippi jumped all over that new funding, and added the interchange at Henry Lake, but with the wider median and later bridge design then prevailing. Still, it's odd that the Bovina-MS 22 section would've been built as or converted to super two with a median only at the  Henry Lake Road interchange.

[RoadWarrior56]

When I was a kid in the mid-1960's, we lived in northern Louisiana for several years.  We traveled that section of US 80 frequently.  As of 1963, from Jackson to Vicksburg, I remember these sections of roadway.............from US 51 to west of Jackson - US 80 was a multi-lane roadway that was sort of an expressway, but not a freeway..........west of that section, US 80 then became the "super-two" or two lane freeway (discussed above) that had four-lanes at the interchanges at several locations, and the roadway would go back to two-lanes between interchanges.  It appeared to be staged construction to become an eventual four-lane freeway, which was done sometime around '67.  West of the two-lane freeway section, there was about a 5-6 miles section of US 80 that actually was signed as I-20 that had four  lanes, and a rest area. Immediately east of Vicksburg, the I-20 section transitioned into what appeared to be the original two-lane roadway, which was followed (with a jog at US 61) to the US 80 bridge into Louisiana.

[Brian556]

Nice, interesting in depth discussion. This reminds me of the section of I-40 at the White River in Arkansas. It was built with no median, just a substandard-height median barrier wall.

In the GSV, you can see that the non-bridge portion has been repaved, and the barrier height increased. It used to look like the bridge portion still does.

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.8385802,-91.4614516,3a,75y,58.28h,82.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSeMU5aVRt85hKRuCSdbCFQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[ARMOURERERIC]

I drove this section of 20 on April 30 as part of a cross country move.  I can see there being no need for a full 4 Lane across the state without the new Mississippi bridge being in place.

[Tom958]

....from US 51 to west of Jackson - US 80 was a multi-lane roadway that was sort of an expressway, but not a freeway... Immediately east of Vicksburg, the I-20 section transitioned into what appeared to be the original two-lane roadway, which was followed (with a jog at US 61) to the US 80 bridge into Louisiana.

So, my revised theory is that in the pre-Interstate era, Misissippi was interested in upgrading its most important highways, but not necessarily to freeways, at least not right off.

[froggie]

Correct.  Another example of that is what is now I-20/59 through Meridian.  Originally built ca. 1950 as "Tom Bailey Drive", generally from I-20's Exit 129 to MS 39, then northeast along US 11/80 to Russell Dr, it was built as a mix of divided and undivided 4-lane roadway, and the only interchange at the time was at today's MS 145/Exit 153, which at the time was a very tight full cloverleaf.  The upgrade to today's I-20/59 came later, in the 1970s.

[Tom958]

Correct.  Another example of that is what is now I-20/59 through Meridian.  Originally built ca. 1950 as "Tom Bailey Drive", generally from I-20's Exit 129 to MS 39, then northeast along US 11/80 to Russell Dr, it was built as a mix of divided and undivided 4-lane roadway, and the only interchange at the time was at today's MS 145/Exit 153, which at the time was a very tight full cloverleaf.  The upgrade to today's I-20/59 came later, in the 1970s.

Somewhere in Meridian,per uglybridgescom, 20/59 crosses a pair of culverts built in 1949.

[cjk374]

Correct.  Another example of that is what is now I-20/59 through Meridian.  Originally built ca. 1950 as "Tom Bailey Drive", generally from I-20's Exit 129 to MS 39, then northeast along US 11/80 to Russell Dr, it was built as a mix of divided and undivided 4-lane roadway, and the only interchange at the time was at today's MS 145/Exit 153, which at the time was a very tight full cloverleaf.  The upgrade to today's I-20/59 came later, in the 1970s.

A question about I-20/59: Was 20 built 1st and 59 was signed on top of it or vice versa? Their west end split seems as though 59 was built to merge on 20, but on the east end split 20 has the interchange and 59 seems to go straight.

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Another thought about old 80 between Vxburg & Jackson:  the original road stays South of I-20. You can see it at the Bovina exit and then again as a frontage road between Edwards & (IIRC) exit 35.  Having driven this stretch of old 80 many times & reading the posts above, I am now guessing that 80 was moved to the super-2 and then put back on it's original slab when I-20 was born? Any ideas?

[Charles2]

Correct.  Another example of that is what is now I-20/59 through Meridian.  Originally built ca. 1950 as "Tom Bailey Drive", generally from I-20's Exit 129 to MS 39, then northeast along US 11/80 to Russell Dr, it was built as a mix of divided and undivided 4-lane roadway, and the only interchange at the time was at today's MS 145/Exit 153, which at the time was a very tight full cloverleaf.  The upgrade to today's I-20/59 came later, in the 1970s.

A question about I-20/59: Was 20 built 1st and 59 was signed on top of it or vice versa? Their west end split seems as though 59 was built to merge on 20, but on the east end split 20 has the interchange and 59 seems to go straight.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Another thought about old 80 between Vxburg & Jackson:  the original road stays South of I-20. You can see it at the Bovina exit and then again as a frontage road between Edwards & (IIRC) exit 35.  Having driven this stretch of old 80 many times & reading the posts above, I am now guessing that 80 was moved to the super-2 and then put back on it's original slab when I-20 was born? Any ideas?

I can't speak for Mississippi, but in Alabama, the route was known in its early days strictly as I-59, especially in Birmingham.  I-20's existence wasn't acknowledged until BGS's and other permanent signage was first erected ca. 1973-74.  Substandard temporary signage marked I-59 only.

[froggie]

A question about I-20/59: Was 20 built 1st and 59 was signed on top of it or vice versa? Their west end split seems as though 59 was built to merge on 20, but on the east end split 20 has the interchange and 59 seems to go straight.

What is now I-20 was built first in Mississippi (the above-noted "Tom Bailey Dr").  But as Charles noted, I-59 was built first in Alabama.

Another thought about old 80 between Vxburg & Jackson:  the original road stays South of I-20. You can see it at the Bovina exit and then again as a frontage road between Edwards & (IIRC) exit 35.  Having driven this stretch of old 80 many times & reading the posts above, I am now guessing that 80 was moved to the super-2 and then put back on it's original slab when I-20 was born? Any ideas?

The Super-2 (which basically ran from Bovina to Clinton) was originally built as US 80...it's timing more or less coincided with the 1956 Highway Act...and became I-20 when it was twinned.  I'm not certain if US 80 was ever moved back to the old roadway...if it was, it was moved back onto I-20 at some point.  Officially, I-20 and US 80 are concurrent from Louisiana Exit 186 to Mississippi Exit 35.

[cjk374]

The Super-2 (which basically ran from Bovina to Clinton) was originally built as US 80...it's timing more or less coincided with the 1956 Highway Act...and became I-20 when it was twinned.  I'm not certain if US 80 was ever moved back to the old roadway...if it was, it was moved back onto I-20 at some point.  Officially, I-20 and US 80 are concurrent from Louisiana Exit 186 to Mississippi Exit 35.

We have all discussed...sometimes in disgust...states & their piss-poor signing practices. Here is  one of those moments where I'm glad the practices are lacking...

Despite the fact stated by froggie above is actually true, US 80 is still signed on it's original route at the Clay St. exit all the way down to and through the intersection of MS 27. It is also signed in Bovina ( despite one of the shields being a SR 80  ) near the exit ramp. MsDOT recently added MS 822 shields and mounted them next to the US 80 shields (instead of replacing the US 80 shields) at the MS 27 junction and in Bovina.

There are no US 80 reassurance signage anywhere on I-20 east of exit 4. In fact, MsDOT just filled in the missing shields on I-20 from exit 4 westward earlier this year. It is as though they are saying that US 80 splits back to its original route at exit 4 without saying so on the BGSs.