Buried in the continuing resolution that funds the federal government through the end of the fiscal year were two interstate designations.
One is designating the US 67 freeway from Little Rock to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, as Interstate 57. However, there are no plans to upgrade anything between Walnut Ridge and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, nor to upgrade the four-lane US 60 between Poplar Bluff and Sikeston to controlled-access. Assigning the same number to distinct interstates isn’t a violation, but that makes sense when they’re hundreds of miles apart, not fewer than 100.
In addition, the designation violates the numbering system because this 57 runs west of 55. Then, if the gap got closed up, I-57 would be a mostly east-west interstate in Missouri. Completion of the gap would make a good Dallas-to-Chicago corridor with I-30, but as we’ve seen with the interminable I-49 Bella Vista bypass, Missouri doesn’t have any money to do anything.
The only counterargument is that it makes the theoretical continuous I-57 more of a diagonal interstate, and a diagonal can go against the grain as long as part of it is in the right spot. Of course, North Carolina twisted that leeway earlier this century when it got a north-south highway designated an extension of I-26. So the only thing that could have been worse was to designate the US 67 freeway an extension of I-30.
A much better designation would have been I-53; that number could have replaced I-530 too, creating a slightly bowed interstate from Pine Bluff through Little Rock to Walnut Ridge. Then, in the far far future, if the interstate got extended into Missouri, I-53 could have gone up US 67 to St. Louis.
There will be about a 20-mile gap between the north end of the recently designated I-555 to Jonesboro and the new I-57; I wonder how long it will take Arkansas to close that gap. Otherwise, this I-57 is just a really long spur interstate. I’m jealous of Arkansas getting new interstates and US route designations; I just wish the numbering decisions didn’t offend the sensibilities about the system.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, the southern half of the Pennyrile Parkway got a designation of I-169. This is because the northern half of the parkway was designated I-69, but then the designation veers west along the Western Kentucky Parkway. The number is correct as a child route, but the multi-state I-69 boondoggle is an abomination unto the system.
What we really need is a rider that bans anyone in the legislative branch from choosing interstate numbers and makes clear that it’s the responsibility of FHWA and AASHTO — or a select group of citizens who KNOW THE FREAKING RULES. (Barring that, let’s put a vehicle exception in for the US 65 Des Moines River bridge and get an interstate designation for the beltway.)
(h/t AARoads)