Interstate 555

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This article contains information about a planned or expected future road.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change as the road's construction or completion approaches and more information becomes available.

Interstate 555
Future route of the Interstate Highway System

Length:

44 mi (71 km)

Formed:

currently under construction

South end:

Interstate 55 in Turrell, Arkansas

North end:

AR 91 in Jonesboro, Arkansas

Interstate 555 (abbreviated I-555) is a future interstate highway that is slated to connect Turrell, Arkansas at Interstate 55 to Jonesboro, Arkansas at Highway 91. I-555 is currently under construction as U.S. Highway 63, which is being upgraded to Interstate standard over that stretch.

According to the 2007 Arkansas state highway map, only a segment from Tyronza to Gilmore is not yet up to freeway standards. However, as of August 5, 2007 the Highway 135 interchange on that section, the last one remaining, is open, thus making the route a true freeway. A few mainline bridges between Marked Tree and Turrell are from the original two-lane U.S. 63 and are narrower than current interstate standards, but I-530 was approved a few years ago despite having a similar issue.

The last requirement to formally designate this route as I-555 is the construction of a parallel access road across a floodway between Payneway and Marked Tree, so that farm equipment will no longer have to use U.S. 63 to cross the floodway. Once barred from I-555, alternate routes for farmers would lead to detours of up to 1-1/2 hours. Though reportedly funding for the access road itself is still up in the air, the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (which owns the floodway as part of a wildlife management area) is proceeding with bids for a mitigation project apparently related to the floodway crossing.

The project provides a limited-access highway corridor between Memphis, Tennessee, and Arkansas's fifth largest city.

I-555 will be the second Interstate with all three digits the same, and the first to be signed as an Interstate (I-444 in Oklahoma is unsigned).