Interstate 65

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Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north–south interstate highway in the central United States. As with most primary interstates ending in 5, it is a major crosscountry, north–south route, connecting between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. Its southern terminus is located at an interchange with I-10 in Mobile, Alabama, and its northern terminus is at an interchange with US 12 (US 12) and US 20 (the Dunes Highway) in Gary, Indiana, just southeast of Chicago. I-65 connects several major metropolitan areas in the Midwest and Southern US. It connects the four largest cities in Alabama: Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Huntsville. It also serves as one of the main north–south routes through Nashville, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; and Indianapolis, Indiana, each a major metropolitan area in its respective state.

Route description

Lengths

	mi	km
AL	366.22	590.63
TN	121.71	195.87
KY	137.32	221.00
IN	261.27	420.47
Total	887.30	1427.97

Alabama

File:I20I59Birmingham.JPG

Approaching an exit for I-65 in downtown Birmingham

In Alabama, I-65 passes through or near four major metropolitan areas: Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Huntsville. I-65 begins its path northward in Mobile at its junction with I-10. From I-10, I-65 runs west of downtown Mobile and through the northern suburbs of the city before turning northeast towards Montgomery. In Montgomery, I-65 connects with the southern end of I-85. In the Birmingham suburbs, I-65 has an interchange with I-459 and another interchange in the city at I-20/I-59. North of downtown, I-22 branches off I-65 toward Memphis. From Birmingham, I-65 continues north, crossing the Tennessee River near Decatur. A few miles north of the river, it intersects I-565, a short spur route which provides access to Huntsville. It then continues north out of the Tennessee Valley to Tennessee toward Nashville.

Tennessee

File:I-65 Southbound in Nashville.JPG

I-65 southbound in Nashville

I-65 enters Tennessee from the south near the town of Ardmore and passes through mostly rural territory for . It then passes Lewisburg. Then it passes close to Columbia and crosses Saturn Parkway, which brings travelers to the town of Spring Hill. I-65 then continues on to reach I-840 and progresses until it intersects State Route 96 (SR 96) at Franklin. Then the highway goes through Brentwood, and enters Nashville, where it first interchanges with I-440. It then has brief concurrences with I-40 and I-24 near downtown Nashville. The freeway then meets State Route 155 (SR 155, Briley Parkway), and after passing through Madison, meets SR 386 (Vietnam Veterans Boulevard) in Goodlettsville. The freeway then passes through Millersville and White House, and then, close to Portland, crosses into Kentucky.

Kentucky

File:Interstate 65 exit for Interstate 265 and Kentucky Route 9007.jpg

I-65 northbound near the I-165 interchange in Bowling Green, Kentucky

I-65 enters the state south of Franklin. Throughout its length, it passes near Mammoth Cave National Park, Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, the National Corvette Museum, and Fort Knox.

The first major intersection in the state is with I-165 (formerly the William H. Natcher Parkway) at Bowling Green. I-65 has intersections with three of the parkways in the state. The first major junction is with the Cumberland Parkway near Rocky Hill. At Elizabethtown, it has two more parkway interchanges with the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway and the Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway. In Louisville, I-65 also has interchanges with I-265, I-264, I-64, and I-71.

The widest stretch of I-65 in its entirety is in Louisville at Kentucky Route 1065 (KY 1065, Outer Loop), where the main line is 14 lanes wide. The highway crosses the Ohio River into Indiana on a toll bridge. The southbound side is called the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge (southbound) and the northbound side is called the Abraham Lincoln Bridge. The latter bridge opened in October 2016 as part of the Ohio River Bridges Project. Prior to the project, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge (completed in 1963) carried traffic in both directions. The project also included reconstruction of the I-65/I-64/I-71 convergence interchange just south of the Kennedy Bridge, as well as renovating the older span to carry six lanes of southbound traffic. Additionally, a second six-lane cable-stayed bridge upstream on the Ohio River, the Lewis and Clark Bridge, was built as part of the project, opening in December 2016 to complete the I-265 loop around Louisville.

At one time, the stretch of I-65 from Louisville to Elizabethtown was a toll road, called the Kentucky Turnpike. The bonds that financed the road have been paid off, and tolls are no longer collected. All signs of the former turnpike have been removed.

On November 15, 2006, the stretch of I-65 from Bowling Green to Louisville was renamed the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Expressway.

On February 12, 2007, a bill passed the Kentucky Senate to rename I-65 in Jefferson County the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway. Signs were posted July 25, 2007.

On July 15, 2007, Kentucky highway officials raised the speed limits on most Interstate and state parkway highways to . Prior to that, Kentucky was the only state along I-65 that had a maximum speed limit of .

Indiana

File:I-65 in Indianapolis.jpg

I-65 just outside Indianapolis, Indiana

File:Northern terminus of I-65.jpg

Approaching the northern terminus of I-65 in Gary, Indiana

I-65 enters Indiana at Jeffersonville and Clarksville. Miles 0–9 were rebuilt, widened, and realigned from north of Sellersburg to the Ohio River during 2008–2010, giving great traffic relief to the fast-growing Indiana suburbs of Louisville. Over 300,000 of the 1.5 million people in Louisville's CMSA live in its Indiana counties.

A section of I-65 in Downtown Indianapolis runs concurrently with I-70. The junctions are often referred to as the "North Split" and the "South Split", forming a section of Interstate locally known as the "Inner Loop" or "The Spaghetti Bowl" due to the visual complexity of the intersecting ramps and overpasses.

In mid-March 2007, a section of I-70 from the North Split to I-465 east of downtown was restricted to automobiles only for the "Super 70" project, a massive rebuild and expansion of that freeway. Trucks over were forced to divert through I-65 if coming from the north and use the circular I-465 to the south to reconnect to I-70 eastbound. Westbound traffic from I-70 was required to loop north or south along I-465 to get to I-65 or I-70. The Super 70 project was completed in November 2007. In mid-2003, the portion of I-65 that runs concurrently with I-70 was closed to all traffic due to the "HyperFix" project. During that time, a new concrete surface was installed and the overpasses were upgraded.

In 1999, the segment of I-65 between the two I-465 interchanges was renamed the Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds Highway.

North of Lafayette near Brookston, the road passes through the Meadow Lake Wind Farm for several miles, with the turbines and standards spaced out in order to avoid a collapse onto the highway. The Fowler Ridge Wind Farm is also visible on both sides of the highway.

From its crossing into Lake County over the Kankakee River to its northern terminus, the highway is known as the Casimir Pulaski Memorial Highway.

Prior to 2004, the northern terminus of I-65 was only north of the Indiana Toll Road (I-90). Traffic going from I-90 to I-65 had to stop at a traffic signal to make a left turn. Traffic from I-65 to I-90 bypassed the traffic signal via an isolated right-turn lane. In 2004, the interchange was fully grade-separated, so it is now one interchange involving I-65, I-90, US 12, and US 20, thereby eliminating a connection gap in the Interstate Highway System.

History

The first section of Interstate 65 reused the Kentucky Turnpike, a toll road that opened on August 1, 1956. The first section of Interstate Highway in Tennessee constructed under the authorization of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was a short section of I-65 which opened on November 15, 1958. The first section of Interstate Highway to be completed in Alabama was also a section of I-65, which opened on December 10, 1959. The first section of I-65 in Indiana was opened on September 14, 1960. Kentucky was the first state to complete its portion of I-65, with the last stretch opening on June 22, 1970. The final section in Tennessee opened on October 26, 1973. The last section in Indiana, part of the concurrent section with I-70 in Indianapolis, opened on October 15, 1976. I-65 was not officially completed until December 19, 1985, when a section north of Birmingham opened, replacing a four-lane stretch of US 31 that had been designated as part of I-65 but did not meet Interstate Highway standards.

I-65 lends its name to the I-65 Killer, also known as the Days Inn Killer (later identified as Harry Edward Greenwell), who committed at least 3 murders along I-65 in Indiana and Kentucky.

Junction list

Alabama

in Mobile

in Mobile

in Mobile

in Prichard

in Prichard

north-northeast of Satsuma

west-southwest of Evergreen

on the Hope Hull–Montgomery line

in Montgomery

in Montgomery. The highways travel concurrently through Montgomery.

in Montgomery. I-65/US 82 travels concurrently to Prattville.

in Montgomery

north of Prattville

in Clanton

in Calera

in Alabaster

in Hoover

on the Hoover–Vestavia Hills city line

in Birmingham

in Birmingham

in Birmingham

in Fultondale

in Smoke Rise. The highways travel concurrently through Smoke Rise.

in Cullman

south-southeast of Lacon

on the Decatur–Huntsville city line

in Athens

in Athens. The highways travel concurrently to Ardmore, Tennessee.

Tennessee

west of Frankewing

in Columbia

near Franklin

in Nashville

in Nashville. The highways travel concurrently through Nashville.

in Nashville

in Nashville

in Nashville. The highways travel concurrently through Nashville.

in Nashville

in Nashville

in Goodlettsville

Kentucky

south-southeast of Franklin

in Bowling Green

in Bowling Green

in Oakland

in Munfordville

in Elizabethtown

in Elizabethtown

in Louisville

in Louisville

in Louisville

in Louisville

Indiana

in Jeffersonville. The highways travel concurrently to west of Jeffersonville.

in Clarksville

south-southeast of Crothersville

in Seymour

in Taylorsville

in Indianapolis

in Indianapolis. The highways travel concurrently through Indianapolis.

in Indianapolis

north-northwest of Royalton. I-65/US 52 travels concurrently to Lebanon.

south of Wolcott

east of Remington

north of Remington

in Crown Point

in Merrillville

in Gary

in Gary

in Gary

Reference:

Auxiliary routes

• , a spur in Alabama that begins in Prichard and ends in Mobile.
• , a spur in Alabama that begins in Decatur and ends in Huntsville.
• , a spur in Kentucky that begins in Bowling Green and ends in Owensboro.
• , the beltway around the Louisville area in Kentucky and Indiana. The highway is called the Gene Snyder freeway in Kentucky, and the Lee H. Hamilton Highway in Indiana between I-65 and the Lewis and Clark Bridge connecting Indiana and Kentucky on the eastern side of Louisville.
• , a full beltway around Indianapolis.
• , a connection between I-65 and I-465 on the northwest side of Indianapolis, formerly numbered I-465.

See also

• Ohio River Bridges Project
• Super Bowl XLI, dubbed the "I-65 Bowl" due to the proximity of the competing teams' cities (Indianapolis and Chicago) to I-65

External links

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