MS Bound

[codyg1985]

I know the bridges you seek on old 80--over the Big Black River east of Bovina--a DEFINITE MUST SEE!!  Also, if u want to see another big bridge over the same river, turn right on Warriors Trail (just before you get to the Big Black River).  There is a HUGE concrete arch bridge that carries the Kansas City Southern mainline over it.  Watching a train go overhead on this structure is really awesome (to me anyway).

Slight correction: this is the "Meridian Speedway" from Meridian to Shreveport. KCS's main line goes south from Kansas City through Shreveport to Port Arthur.

Slightly off-topic, but a few questions about the Meridian Speedway:

Why is it called the Meridian Speedway? I find it odd that Norfolk Southern doesn't maintain this line since they send a lot of intermodal freight over that line to Dallas. (Same with BNSF).
Does UP take over from Shreveport west to Dallas, or does KCS maintain that line to Dallas?

[cjk374]

The NS paid $350 million CASH for their 38% share of the Meridian Speedway, LLC.  This money was used for CTC installation, siding extensions, and other capacity improvements.  As of now, the NS (somehow) has control over the use of all sidings on the Speedway.  In the contract, if KCS doesn't get the hot pig trains to Meridian and Dallas on time at least 80-85% of the time, the NS will assume control of the Speedway.   

[agentsteel53]

Not for US routes.  There were some state split routes early on...of which MS 9W remains to this day.  The most prominent was MS 45W, which became ALT US 45.

I think I also remember there being a 9Y.  What is the story behind that?

[US71]

The southern U.S. 49E/49W split was fairly short. MDOT provides scans of their official highway map going back to 1928 on their web site. U.S. 49E/W to the south are displayed in the 1936 version for instance.

Comparing that to a modern map, looks like the old routes are chopped up a bit.

[berberry]

Comparing that to a modern map, looks like the old routes are chopped up a bit.

The graphics capabilities of even the best equipment at that time were very limited.  It's interesting to follow the progression of cartographic and printing technology used to produce those maps, from year to year, which you can do by reading "between the lines", as it were, of the maps at the website AA linked.

[US71]

Comparing that to a modern map, looks like the old routes are chopped up a bit.

The graphics capabilities of even the best equipment at that time were very limited.  It's interesting to follow the progression of cartographic and printing technology used to produce those maps, from year to year, which you can do by reading "between the lines", as it were, of the maps at the website AA linked.

I'm just saying (based on what I saw) that the old alignments don't appear to be thru roads anymore. I could be wrong. Hopefully, I'll have time to investigate.

[berberry]

I'm just saying (based on what I saw) that the old alignments don't appear to be thru roads anymore. I could be wrong. Hopefully, I'll have time to investigate.

Okay, I think I see what you mean.  I've also noticed on those old maps that sometimes a road looks disjointed when I don't think it was.  Hard to be sure, though, because breaks in the line of a route were common in those days.  Btw, I'm not an expert, so I might be using the wrong word here, in which case I'm completely off:  by "break" or "disjoint", I mean a place where a turn at an intersection is required to continue along a given route.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

The only bridge of note along (old) US 90 between New Orleans and Lafayette would be the old crossing of the Atchafayala between Baldwin and Morgan City

[berberry]

If you ever make it to north Mississippi, there are some interesting roads there as well.  If you're a blues music fan, you'll know why the original intersection of US 61 and US 49 in Clarksdale is one of the more photographed pieces of roadway around:  it's the place where legend says Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil.  Greenwood has probably the most pointless cloverleaf interchange I've ever seen, where 49E and 82 meet.  On 49, the road is two-lane, divides to four at the interchange, and immediately draws back to two.  Why wouldn't a diamond work just as well?

Washington county, south of Greenville, has some of the only stretches of extant, paved one-lane highways anywhere in the state (at least I assume they're still there, I haven't seen them myself since the 80s).

Oxford has a road that, except for one feature, could be called a freeway.  The feature?  A RR crossing!

And finally, Tupelo has what I believe is probably Mississippi's oldest extant expressway, although I don't know that to be a fact.  It's the section of old 78 on the east end of town.  From looking at it, I think it was probably built about the same time as the Hwy 80 expressway bypass of Vicksburg, which later required considerable upgrading to become I-20.

[froggie]

I'm just saying (based on what I saw) that the old alignments don't appear to be thru roads anymore. I could be wrong. Hopefully, I'll have time to investigate.

Except where it was realigned with the US 49 4-laning, the old US 49W alignment is more or less a thru road.  Follow the roads I mentioned in my previous post.

Not so sure about old US 49E.  I believe some of it is within Camp Shelby now.

And finally, Tupelo has what I believe is probably Mississippi's oldest extant expressway, although I don't know that to be a fact.  It's the section of old 78 on the east end of town.  From looking at it, I think it was probably built about the same time as the Hwy 80 expressway bypass of Vicksburg, which later required considerable upgrading to become I-20.

There are at least two older sections.  What is now I-20/59 through Meridian was built as the US 11/80 "Tom Bailey Drive" and opened in 1950, part of which remains as the US 11/80 connection to MS 39 on the east side of town.

And US 49 through Hattiesburg, including the ancient cloverleaf at US 11, predates that...having been completed no later than 1948.

[berberry]

What is now I-20/59 through Meridian was built as the US 11/80 "Tom Bailey Drive" and opened in 1950, part of which remains as the US 11/80 connection to MS 39 on the east side of town.

Yeah, when I wrote that post I specifically thought of you once saying something about a long-ago-removed cloverleaf in Meridian that matched the 49/11 leaf in Hattiesburg.  I think you said that in the '50s, Hwy 80 was upgraded into an expressway, then later to I-20.  That means the old expressway doesn't exist in its original form but has been significantly modified, and I guess in my mind I'd disqualified it for that reason.

I disqualified 49 through Hattiesburg simply because it's not what I would call an expressway.  I've always thought of an expressway as having very few traffic lights or none at all.  Probably you're technically correct, though, because I think MS officially calls it an expressway.

Using my rules, the only rules that count after all  , I think the east end of Tupelo's McCullough Blvd is still the oldest extant expressway in Mississippi.

[froggie]

You still might be thwarted.     Though maps are not very useful in picking out the year the 4-lane part of McCullough Blvd was built, NBI data suggests that it was no earlier than 1962.  By that point, 3 segments of I-55 (near McComb, south of Jackson, and north of Batesville), 2 sections of 4-lane US 49 (south of Camp Shelby and near Wiggins), and 1 section of I-59 (Hattiesburg to Laurel) were already built.

[US71]

And US 49 through Hattiesburg, including the ancient cloverleaf at US 11, predates that...having been completed no later than 1948.

NBI data on Bridgehunter says 1946

There's a smaller version at 7th Street & 49, but not as a cloverleaf.

[jdb1234]

Oxford has a road that, except for one feature, could be called a freeway.  The feature?  A RR crossing!

I was in Oxford 5 years ago and I believe the at grade RR crossing on MS 6 had already been removed.

[US71]

Oxford has a road that, except for one feature, could be called a freeway.  The feature?  A RR crossing!

I was in Oxford 5 years ago and I believe the at grade RR crossing on MS 6 had already been removed.

Missouri has (or had) a few of those

[cjk374]

Oxford has a road that, except for one feature, could be called a freeway.  The feature?  A RR crossing!

I was in Oxford 5 years ago and I believe the at grade RR crossing on MS 6 had already been removed.

Missouri has (or had) a few of those

I seem to remember one of those crossings in MO...I think it is RTE BB on the northside of Columbia headed toward Hallsville.  I believe it is the Columbia Terminal RR (COLT).  I think a Quaker Oats plant is alongside the tracks and highway...interstate-grade road with a very long crossing across the road (45-degree-or-less crossing IIRC).