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Interstate 40

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Interstate 40 (abbreviated I-40) is a major west-east interstate highway in the United States. Its western terminus is at Interstate 15 in Barstow, California; its eastern terminus is at a concurrency of U.S. Route 117 and North Carolina Highway 132 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Much of the western portion of I-40, from Oklahoma City to Barstow, parallels historic U.S. Route 66. I-40 connects to 8 of the 10 primary north-south interstates (all except I-5 and I-45).

When the last portion of I-40, connecting Wilmington to Raleigh, was completed in the late 1980s, Charles Kuralt stated:

Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.

Route description

|- |CA || 154.61 || 248.82 |- |AZ || 359.48 || 578.53 |- |NM || 373.51 || 601.11 |- |TX || 177.10 || 285.11 |- |OK || 331.03 || 532.74 |- |AR || 284.69 || 458.16 |- |TN || 455.28 || 732.70 |- |NC || 423.55 || 681.64 |- |Total || 2,559.25 || 4,118.71 |}
Major cities
Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs

California

Interstate 40, a major east-west route of the Interstate Highway System, has its western terminus in Barstow, California, United States. Known as the Needles Freeway, it heads east from Barstow across the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County to Needles, before it crosses into Arizona west of Kingman.

Arizona

Interstate 40 is a principal route to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, with the exits leading into Grand Canyon National Park in Williams and Flagstaff.

New Mexico

I-40 used to have a conventional mileage sign in New Mexico to the east of San Jon (a village to the east of Tucumcari, New Mexico) which probably bore the longest distance on such a sign. The sign showed 1007 miles for Los Angeles, although I-40 doesn't actually go there (it is accessed via Interstates 15 and 10).

Numerous roads throughout the state connect directly to the interstate in violation of Interstate Highway Standards.

Texas

In the west Texas panhandle area, there are several ranch roads connected directly to the interstate. One of the marked at-grade crossings is shown to the left.

Oklahoma

Interstate 40 flows through the heart of the state, passing through many cities and towns of Oklahoma. Some of them include Erick, Sayre, Elk City, Clinton, Weatherford, El Reno, Oklahoma City, Shawnee, Okemah, Henryetta, Checotah, Sallisaw, and Roland.

Arkansas

I-40 passes through six major cities in Arkansas: Fort Smith and Russellville on the western side, Conway and North Little Rock in the center, and Brinkley and West Memphis on the eastern side. It is a major thoroughfare for commerce as it is currently the only west/east interstate in Arkansas. In addition to this traffic, I-30's eastbound termination and merger with I-40 in North Little Rock cause the east side of the state to be inundated with more commercial traffic than the west side.

Tennessee

More miles of Interstate 40 pass through Tennessee than any other state. The interstate itself goes through the three largest cities in Tennessee: Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville. Dandridge, Jackson, Crossville, and Cookeville are other notable cities and/or towns that I-40 travels through. I-40 goes through all of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee. Before leaving the state, I-40 emerges into the Great Smoky Mountains. In May 2008, the portion of I-40 in Knoxville will be under construction for around 14 months.

North Carolina

In North Carolina, I-40 merges with I-85 between Greensboro and Hillsborough, just west of Durham. In Alamance County, the highway is also known as the Sam Hunt Freeway. Due to a recent rerouting of I-85 around Greensboro, I-40 departs from it eight miles (13 km) east of the original split. However, I-40 will be moved to a new alignment south of Greensboro, which currently carries the new I-85 bypass and will eventually carry Interstate 73 as well. The existing I-40 through Greensboro will become a second I-40 freeway Business Loop once the new alignment is finished by 2007. The concurrency with I-85 will be extended another 12 miles (19 km) on this new alignment.

In violation of Interstate standards, I-40 has one marked and two unmarked at-grade crossings in western North Carolina. About eight miles (13 km) from the Tennessee border in North Carolina, when going westbound, a sign for "Hurricane Road" will appear. Hurricane Road is a local dirt road whose quality is below that of the breakdown lane, and the intersection is controlled by a stop sign. It is a right-in, right-out entrance. A couple other unmarked local roads also directly link onto I-40 in the area, including a private access road for Walters Dam between mile markers 11 and 12 on the westbound side.

History

For about 1,000 miles, I-40 follows the general route of the Beale Wagon Road from Arkansas to California. The Beale Wagon Road was built in 1857-9 by a team led by Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale using a team of camels as pack animals.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, I-40 was originally meant to replace Central Avenue through the center of the city. However, due to development and public opposition, a path going northward was chosen. The freeway intersects Central at both ends of the city.

In 1957, the California Department of Highways proposed that the route be renumbered to Interstate 30 instead because of the already existing U.S. Route 40 in the state. U.S. 40 was decommissioned in 1964, as a part of a major revamping of California's highway numbering system.

The California state government submitted State Route 58 between Barstow and Bakersfield for I-40 extension potential in 1956 and 1968, though those requests were rejected. This portion of SR 58 was once signed as U.S. Route 466.

From 1963 to 1966, the US government considered a plan, part of Operation Plowshare, to use atomic bombs to excavate a path for I-40 through California. The project was scuttled largely due to the cost of developing the explosives as well as the unavailability of a "clean bomb.

In Memphis, I-40 was originally intended to go through the city's Overton Park toward downtown. Several miles of interstate were actually built within the I-240 loop; this portion of highway still exists and is in regular use as Sam Cooper Boulevard, reaching the eastern end of Chickasaw Country Club. Environmentalist opposition, combined with a victory in the United States Supreme Court by opponents of the Overton Park route (see Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe) forced abandonment of the original plans, and the road never reached the park. For over 20 years, I-40 signage existed on the dead-end route toward Overton Park. Eventually, the northern portion of the I-240 loop was redesignated as I-40.

Originally, I-40 was routed through downtown Winston-Salem, and it continued to follow that route until a new bypass was built. After the bypass was completed around 1992, I-40 was relocated to the new freeway. The old routing was then redesignated as Interstate 40 Business, creating a business route that is actually an expressway for its entire length, a rarity among business routes. There are arguments that the former I-40 expressway in Winston-Salem should become an interstate again, especially since the road is currently undergoing an upgrade. There are no even loop numbers left for I-40, however, since the NCDOT has plans to use last available one Interstate 840 for the northern loop of a beltway that's being built around nearby Greensboro.

The I-40 Bridge Disaster occurred on May 26, 2002 when a barge collided with a bridge support near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, causing a 580-foot (177 meter) section of the I-40 bridge to plunge into the Arkansas River. Automobiles and semi-trucks fell into the water killing 14 people, including a three-year-old girl.

The "Big I" I-25 and I-40 interchange in Albuquerque, New Mexico was given an honorable mention by the United States Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration for excellence in urban highway design in 2002.

Future

In 2008, a section of I-40 through downtown Knoxville near the Malfunction Junction will be completely closed to all traffic for about 14 months, beginning in May for a massive reconstruction. Through traffic will be required to use Interstate 640 or be funneled onto surface streets. The section is currently 4 lanes wide and quite substandard and congested, with many accidents.

Major intersections

Auxiliary routes

In Oklahoma City, the designation I-440 had been given to a stretch of Interstate highway from I-240 to US-66; a part of Grand Boulevard that had been built compliant with Interstate standards. In 1982, as part of Oklahoma's "Diamond Jubilee", I-44's western terminus was moved from the I-35/I-44 junction to the Texas/Oklahoma border via the Belle Isle Freeway (connecting I-440 with I-35), I-440, the H.E. Bailey Turnpike, and the turnpike connector road on the eastern edge of Lawton, Oklahoma. The I-440 designation was dropped at the time, but may return in the future.

See also

Business routes

References

External links

California



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