Interstate 155 (Missouri–Tennessee)

The Caruthersville Bridge from the Tennessee side of the Mississippi River

Prior to the construction of the Caruthersville Bridge, a number of ferries crossed the Mississippi River between the two states. By the early 1940s, were two of the few remaining bordering states in the country which were not directly connected by road or rail, and a bridge across the river began to be proposed.[3] A committee was created by both state legislatures to study the possibility of constructing a bridge near Caruthersville in 1949.[4] The bridge site was chosen by the commission on November 18, 1952,[5] which was subsequently approved by the Army Corps of Engineers on August 20, 1953.[6]

After the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which authorized the Interstate Highway System, officials in Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois began an effort to improve connectivity between the four states, which included a westward extension of I-24 from its allocated terminus in Nashville to southern Illinois. Governors John M. Dalton of Missouri and Buford Ellington of Tennessee announced on January 30, 1962, a proposal for a new Interstate Highway between I-55 in Hayti and I-40 in Jackson, Tennessee, which would incorporate the bridge.[7] On September 17, 1963, the governors of the four states met with President John F. Kennedy where they reached an agreement on the alignment for the I-24 extension and endorsed the routing for the Hayti-to-Jackson Interstate Highway.[8] On August 18, 1964, the Bureau of Public Roads, the predecessor agency to the Federal Highway Administration, approved the I-24 extension and authorized an Interstate Highway spur route between Hayti and Dyersburg, which was named I-155. However, they did not give approval to the entire proposed route to Jackson.[9][10]

Construction of I-155 began with work on the Caruthersville Bridge in March 1969. The contract for grading and construction of bridges for the stretch between the Tennessee approach to the Mississippi River and SR 182 was awarded in January 1973,[11] and this was completed in the fall of 1975, after multiple delays.[12] In Missouri, the contract for construction of the section between I-55 and Routes D and U was let in May 1974,[13] and the adjacent section extending to the Mississippi River approach was awarded two months later.[14] The Caruthersville Bridge was opened to traffic on December 1, 1976, in a ceremony by Missouri Governor Kit Bond and Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton.[15][16] The last section of I-155, located between SR 182 and the eastern terminus with US 51/412, was completed in November 1979.[17] US 412 was added to the route in 1982. In the 1990s, an extension of I-69 was proposed to intersect the interstate northwest of Dyersburg and replace the remainder east of that point, reducing its length by approximately eight miles (13 km).[18]