Interstate 44 or I -44 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Missouri. The highway runs from Joplin at the Oklahoma border to Interstate 55 in St. Louis. The highway is 471 kilometers long.
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Travel directions
I-44 at Joplin.
I-44 in the suburbs of St. Louis.
I-44 in St. Louis.
I-44 in St. Louis.
The interchange between I-44 and I-270 at St. Louis, a bow tie.
The Will Rogers Turnpike, Interstate 44 in Oklahoma, crosses the Missouri border at Joplin. Joplin is a regional town with 48,000 inhabitants. On the east side of Joplin, US 71 merges into the highway that comes from Fort Smith in Arkansas. Both roads are then double-numbered for a few miles until the hamlet of Fidelity, where US 71 turns north again as a 2×2 trunk road and also as a highway, towards Kansas City. This may become Interstate 49. in the future. One then goes about 40 kilometers straight to the east, the I-44 has many long straights. The landscape is quite flat, and consists of meadows with occasional small forests. After about 110 kilometers you reach the city of Springfield, a somewhat larger city with 151,000 inhabitants, the third largest city in Missouri. This is where the SR-360 turns off, the southern bypass of the city.
Interstate 44 passes north of Springfield, intersecting on the east side with US 65, the highway to Branson to the south. After this you arrive in a somewhat hilly area, but the distances are still quite large. Between Springfield and the next major city, Saint Louis is 300 miles to the northeast. The area becomes more forested, one enters the Mark Twain National Forest. Here, I-44 also turns more northeasterly. One passes through wooded and sparsely populated areas, and does not cross major roads even for longer distances. At Rolla, the first major intersection is with US 63, which runs from West Plains in the south to the capital Jefferson City in the north. The I-44 also has Frontage Roads here and there. At Union, US 50 merges from Jefferson City, entering the Saint Louis area of influence, and traffic gets a little busier.
The first suburb of Saint Louis is Wildwood. From there, 2×3 lanes are also available. At Kirkwood one crosses Interstate 270, the ring road of St. Louis. After this, 2×4 lanes will be available for traffic. Saint Louis is mostly made up of many small suburbs, but one passes through a continuously built-up area, and many residential areas are nestled in the woods. After about 30 kilometers you reach the city of Saint Louis itself, which is a lot more densely built. It crosses the middle of the city. Saint Louis has a grid pattern, but is not as perfect as one sees in many other cities. Just south of downtown, Interstate 44 ends at Interstate 55, which runs from Memphis to Chicagoruns.
FINDJOBDESCRIPTIONS: Weather by month for the state of Missouri, covering average temperatures for all 12 months.
History
Interstate 44 follows and replaces the old Route 66. Interstate 44 is one of the first (or even the first) highways to be built as an Interstate Highway, on August 2, 1956 the contracts were signed for the construction of the I-44 around Lebanon in Laclede County, northeast of Springfield. I-44 between Joplin and Springfield was completed fairly quickly, being completed in 1966. The St. Louis section was opened between 1971 and 1973. What remained was the upgrade of the four-lane US Route 66 between Springfield and St. Louis to Interstate Highway standards. This was fragmented and considerably slower than the construction of I-70 in Missouri. It was not until 1980 that the last level crossings had disappeared.
St. Louis
The predecessor to I-44 along downtown St. Louis was the Third Street Expressway, which opened on October 15, 1955. This was a four-mile six-lane downtown road from Gravois Avenue to near Broadway. This became part of two Interstate Highways in 1956, the southern part became I-44, the northern part I-70. The dividing line, the Poplar Street Bridge, opened to traffic in 1967, before that it was the MacArthur Bridge, which is today only a railway bridge.
On February 9, 2014, I-44 was extended 4 miles north as I-70 opened over a new route via the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge. I-44 then became double-numbered with I-55 for a short distance and then led past Downtown St. Louis to the new interchange with I-70. In 2014, a canopy over the I-44 was built near the Gateway Arch.
Opening history
Van
Unpleasant
Length
Opening
Exit 0
Exit 8
13 km
1958
Exit 80
Exit 88
13 km
1959
Exit 127
Exit 130
5 km
1959
Exit 290
Exit 291
2 km
1960
Exit 8
Exit 18
16 km
1962
Exit 58
Exit 80
35 km
1962
Exit 247
Exit 261
22 km
1962
Exit 18
Exit 29
18 km
1964
Exit 261
Exit 276
24 km
1964
Exit 29
Exit 38
14 km
1965
Exit 38
Exit 58
32 km
1966
Exit 150
Exit 163
21 km
1967
Exit 182
Exit 195
21 km
1967
Exit 203
Exit 214
18 km
1968
Exit 163
Exit 182
30 km
1969
Exit 214
Exit 218
6 km
1970
Exit 88
Exit 100
19 km
1971
Exit 113
Exit 118
8 km
1971
Exit 218
Exit 226
13 km
1971
Exit 276
Exit 279
5 km
1971
Exit 279
Exit 283
6 km
1972
Exit 226
Exit 247
34 km
1973
Exit 283
Exit 290
11 km
1973
Exit 100
Exit 113
21 km
1975
Exit 130
Exit 140
16 km
1977
Exit 145
Exit 150
8 km
1979
Exit 118
Exit 127
14 km
1980
Exit 140
Exit 145
8 km
1980
Traffic intensities
About 24,000 vehicles cross the Oklahoma border at Joplin every day. Between Joplin and Springfield there are about 30,000 vehicles per day, which between Springfield and St Louis remains fairly stable between 25,000 and 30,000 vehicles per day. Closer to St. Louis, that rises to 63,000 vehicles, and 122,000 vehicles off I-270. In St. Louis itself, the road is not very busy, with between 100,000 and 120,000 vehicles per day.
