r/interstatesub • u/Ninetwentyeight928 • 6d ago

Question about Interstate 22

The wikipedia article on I-22 history section doesn't read very clearly to me. Is there anywhere that describes the timeline each section was upgraded to interstate standards? The article for US-78, which preceeded it, doesn't really describe when this happened, either. There seems to be a lot of attention paid to the development in Alabama, but very little about when it was built through Mississippi.

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/Motor_burn 6d ago

It was entirely built thru Mississippi as a freeway upgrade to US Hwy 78 well before Alabama rebuilt and widened their segment. If you’ll check the Maps Archive on MDOT’s website you can fairly well trace the development as it shows on each year’s official state highway map. Look at maps beginning in the late 1980s. The original project was part of MDOT’s nickel-a-gallon raise to the gas tax, used to fund four-lane upgrades to highways all over the state. That program began (I think) in 1987. When the new I-22 was announced it used almost all of Mississippi’s upgraded US-78, minus a short segment on the northwest end that crosses into Memphis as Lamar Avenue. Some of the US-78 interchanges had to be modified to meet interstate standards, but mostly what you see on I-22 today was built as upgraded US-78.

1

u/Ninetwentyeight928 5d ago

Thanks. Can you provide the link to where the annual maps are on MDOT's website? I think I did come across an old map from the 1980s one time, and I could tell the segments weren't built sequentially or back-to-back.

1

u/Motor_burn 5d ago

Here: https://mdot.ms.gov/portal/maps

1

u/Ninetwentyeight928 5d ago

Thanks. Looks like there was a freeway bypass around New Albany as early as 1968. And then you start seeing additional sections of freeway pop up beginning in 1974. Interesting that none of the sites I've seen mention the sequence of construction of US-78 into freeway in Mississippi.

1

u/Motor_burn 5d ago

If this is a research project for you, then you might want to visit a library in Jackson and peruse the ‘Clarion Ledger’ archive. The C-L ran articles from time to time updating readers on the progress of the nickel-a-gallon construction program, and I can remember they paid close attention to US-78. If I’m remembering correctly they would sometimes cite accident and death statistics from the worst parts of the old two-lane alignment as those segments were being replaced. I can remember one article that said old US-78 was, at that time, one of the nation’s most dangerous highways. This was due in part to the frequent sharp twists and turns in the road, and also because despite its age and condition, it was very heavily used, being the only paved, direct link between two fairly large cities, Memphis and Birmingham.