Why does US 278 concur with US 43?

[roadman65]

Considering the overlap was established long before I-22 was built, when US 78 also overlapped with US 43/278 between Guin and Hamilton and that both routes meet again in Tupelo ( though not literally, but both do enter the city), why didn't US 78 then follow what is now US 278 from Guin to Tupelo?

It seems keeping US 78 west in line from Guin to Tupelo would be most feasible and that was to follow today's US 278. Plus having US 278 follow what is now AL 74 west of Hamilton and what is now the I-22 freeway ( as old US 78 from Hamilton to the MS state line is the freeway's WB lanes) to the MS border and MS 178 to Tupelo. At there US 78 would overlap US 45 and return to its alignment to Memphis.

US 278, being its extension to AR was added post freeway, could have ended in Tupelo instead of south of it.

To me that looked illogical plus it's wrong way overlap with its parent was unnecessary as well and would have been avoided.


Basically just flip flop the two routes between US 43 and Tupelo is what should have been done.

[Mapmikey]

A couple things at work here...

In 1951, US 278 originally was Tupelo to Guin, then extended to Augusta GA in 1954 in lieu of a new number from Hamilton to Augusta.

The US 78 routing was shorter the way it was.

[lordsutch]

The other thing at work is that US 78 was the Bankhead Highway auto trail, and the Bankhead Highway basically followed what is today the MS 178/AL 118 routing (more or less - there are lots of deviations from the original route in both states), not the US 278 routing that (IIRC) only went as far as US 45 south of Nettleton before US 278 was extended to Arkansas. The US 78 routing was also the better road.

There are older maps that show US 278 extending north along US 45 to Tupelo or at least the Alt US 45 intersection, but I don't recall it being signed that way before the extension into Arkansas.

[Max Rockatansky]

Doctor US 43, do you concur?

[Mapmikey]

There are older maps that show US 278 extending north along US 45 to Tupelo or at least the Alt US 45 intersection, but I don't recall it being signed that way before the extension into Arkansas.

The duplex with US 45 into Tupelo was removed in the late 1960s....