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Introduction

Interstate 44 (I-44) is a major Interstate highway in the central United States. It is nominally an east-west road because it is even-numbered, its path is actually amore southwestern-northeast in alignment. 

When it was originally built its western terminus was in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. However, it was later extended to Wichita Falls, Texas, which is now its western terminus (at a concurrency with US 277, US 281 and US 287). I-44’s eastern terminus is I-70 in St. Louis, Missouri. 

I-44 is one of five interstates built in part to bypass US 66; I-44 covers what was the section of Route 66 between Oklahoma City and St. Louis. In fact, almost the entire length of I-44 that is east of Springfield, Missouri, was once US 66, which was upgraded from two to four lanes during 1949-1955. I-44 west of Springfield was built farther south than US 66 so that the highway could connect with the already completed Will Rogers Turnpike, which is also I-44 in Oklahoma.

Interstate 44 is 293.39 miles long in Missouri, 328.53 miles long in Oklahoma and 14.77 miles long in Texas.

History

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had championed the Interstate Highway System (IHS), signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which authorized the IHS and the financing to pay for it, on June 29, 1956 – from his bed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he was recovering from an attack of ileitis, an intestinal ailment. 

Just over one month later (in August 1956), Missouri became the first state in the nation to award interstate highway construction contracts for portions of I-44 in Laclede County and a portion of I-70 in St. Charles County.

Mark Spangler, the curator of Lebanon, Missouri’s Route 66 Museum, recounted, “This stretch of I-44 just outside Lebanon was actually the first contract let under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. When we finished our stretch out here it had a Route 66 sign on it. It had not been assigned as Interstate 44 yet.”

So how is Missouri’s interstate system doing 66 years later? A Washington, D.C.-based organization known as TRIP is a national transportation research nonprofit. In regard to its research on Missouri’s interstate system, Carolyn Kelly, TRIP’s Director of Communications and Research, stated, “At 66-years-old, Missouri’s and the nation’s interstates are busier and working harder than ever. Missouri’s nearly 1,400 miles of interstate are the workhorse of the state’s transportation network. They carry 21.5 million vehicle-miles of travel each year. And since those shovels first hit the dirt in 1956 the number of vehicles in Missouri has increased more than 3.5 times and the state’s population has increased by more than two million residents.”

That increased traffic also includes a great deal of commerce; Missouri is tied with Montana for the eighth-highest rate of large truck travel in the nation. Class 8 trucks account for 17% of all interstate traffic in the state. Arkansas ranks second with 28%, trailing only Wyoming with 30%. In Missouri, $481 billion in goods are shipped to-and-from sites in the state.

The TRIP research included an examination of Missouri’s interstate pavement conditions, bridge conditions, travel trends, congestion levels and traffic safety. The state’s interstate system is showing signs of advancing age and deterioration.

“Five percent of the state’s interstate bridges are rated in poor or structurally deficient condition,” Kelly stated. “That’s the tenth-highest rate in the nation. About half of Missouri’s interstate bridges are more than 50 years old, which is an age at which many bridges need significant repairs or even replacement.”

However, only 1% of Missouri’s interstate pavement is considered to be in poor condition, which is lower than the national average of 3%. TRIP also reported that 89% of Missouri’s interstate road pavement is considered in good condition, with the remaining 10% ranked in either fair or mediocre condition.

Another positive section of the report is that although the Missouri interstate system carries 27% of the state’s traffic, it accounts for only 17% of the state’s road fatalities. TRIP said that’s because of “interstate safety measures like cable barriers, railings, paved shoulders, rumble strips and less curvy roads.”

One of the most sobering findings of the TRIP report is that nationwide there is a backlog of IHS improvements needed that total $123 billion.

“No one could have envisioned the impact that vehicle traffic was going to have on our economy,” Spangler said.

I-44 in Texas

The extension of Interstate 44 southwest into Texas was approved by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) on June 28, 1982. It was then approved by the Texas State Highway Commission on August 12, 1982. The highway runs Wichita Falls in a northern direction with U.S. 277/281 to Oklahoma.The addition allowed the highway to continue southwest from Oklahoma City to Wichita Falls via Lawton along the Oklahoma Turnpike system.

Interstate 44 now begins along the Central Freeway (US 277-281-287) where the Broad and Holliday Street ramps tie in from 8th Street near downtown Wichita Falls. Work began on February 16, 1999 to join the two limited access highways with the construction of a 1.7-mile- long viaduct system above both Broad and Holliday streets. With the addition of a $1.6 million flyover from U.S. 277-281-287 north to 6th Street, the $47.8 million project was finished seven months ahead of schedule on May 10, 2002.

In Texas, I-44 is a short (14.77 miles), but regionally important segment, connecting Wichita Falls with Oklahoma. The highway runs almost due north to the Texas-Oklahoma state line at the Red River. In Texas, I-44 provides motorists access to downtown Wichita Falls and Sheppard Air Force Base. There are plans to extend I-44 to Abilene, Texas, which would connect I-44 to the I-10/I-20 corridor. 

I-44 in Oklahoma

In 1958, I-44 was originally signed as an interstate designation of the Turner Turnpike linking Oklahoma City and Tulsa and the Will Rogers Turnpike linking Tulsa and the Missouri state line southwest of Joplin, along with the US 66 bypass in Tulsa that linked that city with the two turnpikes and the continued four-lane highway from the Missouri border to an interchange with US 71 south of Joplin previously designated as US 166.

Today, I-44 in Oklahoma is primarily three separate toll roads; it is paralleled by former US 66 from Oklahoma City to the Missouri state line. In the southwestern part of Oklahoma, I-44 is the H. E. Bailey Turnpike and runs primarily north-south. In Oklahoma City, I-44 runs concurrently with I-35 for about four miles. From Oklahoma City, I-44 takes a northeast-southwest route as the Turner Turnpike towards Tulsa. After leaving Tulsa, I-44 becomes the Will Rogers Turnpike to the Missouri state line. Approval for the Will Rogers Turnpike was initiated by the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority one month after it was established by the state legislature in June 1953. 

Prior to the extension into Texas, the western end of I-44 was at the exchange joining I-35 with the Turner Turnpike in northern Oklahoma City. The northern and western portions of the I-240 urban loop encircling Oklahoma City were renumbered as part of I-44. The previously unnumbered H.E. Bailey Turnpike also became part of I-44, as well as the section alongside the highway for U.S. 62 connecting the Turnpike north end (US 62/277) at Newcastle to I-240.

The H.E. Bailey Turnpike segment of I-44 that ran from Lawton to Oklahoma City opened on April 23, 1964. Twelve years later (April 1976), the segment of I-44 from the north end of the H.E. Bailey Turnpike to SW 29th Street in Oklahoma City opened to traffic as part of what was then I-240.

The Turner Turnpike carries I-44 east from I-35 at the Kilpatrick Turnpike to Oklahoma State Highway 66 at Sapulpa. The Turner Turnpike opened to traffic on May 16, 1953; the toll road was the first superhighway built in Oklahoma. The Turner Turnpike/I-44 ties in with Skelly Drive, which is the Historic U.S. 66 bypass of downtown Tulsa.

Skelly Drive (I-44 /Historic U.S. 66) was initially planned in 1948. Discussion of the proposed route wavered between backers of a route toward downtown and those supporting a bypass for through traffic. Ultimately the decision favored the bypass route. 

Skelly Drive honors oilman W.G. Skelly; the expressway opened on November 21, 1958. In the early 2000s, projects to widen I-44 in Tulsa were undertaken. In addition, construction of the Creek Turnpike (SH 364) around the east side of Tulsa included the relocation of I-44 from Skelly Drive onto the Will Rogers Turnpike. 

Previously, the alignment of I-44 split with U.S. 412 east leading directly to the partition with SH 66 north. Relocating I-44 east of Tulsa at the Creek Turnpike and US 412 was approved by AASHTO on May 30, 2003. This included the new alignment of I-44; it would lead due south directly to a new cloverstack interchange with the Creek Turnpike at US 412. One month later, the Creek Turnpike south to the Muskogee Turnpike opened.

In Oklahoma, I-44 runs through or near the cities and towns of Lawton, Chickasha, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Vinita, and Miami. Within the state it also has junctions with I-240, I-40, I-25 and I-244.

I-44 in Missouri

I-44 enters Missouri southwest of Joplin near where Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas meet (and the interstate highway misses the Kansas border by less than 200 yards). The first exit in Missouri is for US 166. 

I-44 continues through the southern part of Joplin, where it runs concurrently with the Missouri segment of I-49. East of Joplin, I-49 splits off and runs to Kansas City. I-44 then continues east on the former US 166 to Mount Vernon. In the northeast part of Mount Vernon, I-44 heads northeast, while old US 166 continues east on Route 174. The section of road from there to Halltown is a completely new road, not using the route of any previous highways. At Halltown, the road follows the general path of US 66 to downtown St. Louis.

Between Halltown and St. Louis, I-44 passes through Springfield on the city’s northside and continues northeast. At Waynesville, I-44’s route contains numerous hills and curves until it passes Rolla. 

At Pacific, I-44 widens as it approaches St. Louis suburbs. It then enters downtown St. Louis; it passes the Gateway Arch before terminating near the Mississippi River at its junction with I-70. 

I-44 was completed through St. Louis in 1972. Ramps were built for the incomplete North South Distributor Freeway (Missouri Route 755). However, plans for Route 755 were scaled back in the early 1980s and ultimately dropped as a parkway in 2003.

Until 2013, the eastern terminus of I-44 was located at the Poplar Street Bridge in St. Louis, where I-55/64/70 and U.S. 40 cross the Mississippi River into Illinois. When the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge was built and I-70 was realigned to the north, the American Association of State Highway and Traffic Officials (AASHTO) approved a northern extension of I-44 for 2.9 miles over what was previously I-70, from I-55 at Truman Parkway to the west end of the cable-stayed bridge. 

FreightWaves Classics thanks the aaroads.com, Federal Highway Administration, interstate-guide.com, ithighway.com, ky3.com, midamericafreight.org and thtsearch.com for information and photos that contributed to this article.