Interstate 555 (I-555) is an

Interstate Highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

that connects

Turrell, Arkansas Turrell is a city in Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 517. Geography Turrell is located in northern Crittenden County at (35.376351, -90.264583). It is bordered by the town of Gilmore to the ...

, at

I-55 Interstate 55 (I-55) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates that end in a five, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. The h ...

to Jonesboro at Highway 91 (AR 91). Formerly known as U.S. Highway 63 (US 63), the highway was upgraded in the early 21st century to

Interstate Highway standards Standards for Interstate Highways in the United States are defined by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in the publication ''A Policy on Design Standards: Interstate System''. For a certain highway to ...

. While I-555 is the second Interstate with all three digits the same to exist, it is the first to be signed as an Interstate. (

I-444 Interstate 444 (I-444) is an unsigned auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System, with both ends at I-244 in downtown Tulsa in the US state of Oklahoma. It makes up the eastern and southern sections on the square-shaped Inner Dispersa ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

, which was the first highway, is unsigned.)

Route description

The road provides a limited-access highway corridor between

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, and

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

's fifth-largest city, Jonesboro. I-555 begins at an interchange of

, US 61, and AR 77 in Turrell. I-55 goes south to Memphis, Tennessee. The road parallel to the Interstate, AR 463, is a former alignment of US 63. I-555 passes through

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

s. It passes through Gilmore. Then, it passes through Tyronza and Marked Tree. The section between Tyronza and Marked Tree is also used for farm equipment vehicles to drive on. Next, it passes through Trumann before entering Jonesboro. It briefly has an overlap with US 49. I-555 ends in Jonesboro at an interchange with AR 91; from there, the road continues as US 63.

History

The I-555 route was approved on January 10, 2001, consisting of upgrading the section of US 63 between Turrell to Jonesboro to Interstate standards. A few mainline bridges between Marked Tree and Turrell are from the original two-lane US 63 and are narrower than current Interstate Highway standards, but I-530 was approved in 1999 despite having a similar issue. The last requirement to formally designate this route as I-555 was the construction of a parallel access road across a floodway between Payneway and Marked Tree, so that farm equipment would no longer have to use US 63 to cross the floodway. To date, no crossing has ever been built, but an exemption of agricultural vehicles was added to I-555 between Marked Tree and Payneway. The exemption was introduced by US Representative Rick Crawford and passed as part of the House Transportation Bill on December 4, 2015. It was announced in December 2015 that I-555 would be officially designated in the spring of 2016. The road was officially dedicated on March 11, 2016, in Jonesboro.

Exit list

References

External links

Interstate 555 ArkansasPutting the "Future" in I-555 (KAIT-TV)
{{3di, 55 55-5 5 55-5 Transportation in Crittenden County, Arkansas Transportation in Poinsett County, Arkansas Transportation in Craighead County, Arkansas Jonesboro metropolitan area