Interstate 65

Route information
Length	887.30 mi (1,427.97 km)
Major junctions
South end	I-10 in Mobile, AL
Major intersections	I-85 in Montgomery, AL I-20 / I-59 in Birmingham, AL I-40 in Nashville, TN I-24 in Nashville, TN I-64 in Louisville, KY I-70 I-74 in Indianapolis, IN I-80 / I-94 in Gary, IN
North end	I-90 / US 12 / US 20 in Gary, IN

Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major Interstate Highway in the United States. The southern terminus is located at an intersection with Interstate 10 in Mobile, Alabama, and its northern terminus is at a traffic light with U.S. Route 12 and U.S. Route 20 (Dunes Highway) in Gary, Indiana, southeast of Chicago, Illinois.

I-65 is humorously known as Auto Alley because of the large number of automotive OEM and supplier firms that have facilities within an hour's drive of the highway (questionable). Of these, the most notable are the Subaru plant in Lafayette, Indiana, the Hyundai plant in Montgomery County, Alabama, the General Motors Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, and the currently-dormant GM plant (formerly Saturn) in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

Route description

Lengths

	mi	km
AL	367.00	590.63
TN	121.71	195.87
KY	137.32	221.00
IN	261.27	420.47
Total	887.30	1427.97

Alabama

Main article: Interstate 65 in Alabama

Interstate 65 begins its journey northwards near Mobile at its junction with Interstate 10 southwest of the city. From I - 10, I - 65 swings completely west of urban Mobile, forming a western bypass around Mobile, and then cutting northeast through Mobile's northern suburb of Prichard before continuing northeast across the deltaland of the navigable Tombigbee River and the Alabama River on its way in the direction of Montgomery, Ala., Alabama's capital city. On this stretch, I - 65 bypasses many small, old towns and villages, including Greenville.

In the case of a hurricane evacuation from the coast of Alabama, I-65 can be converted to a temporary evacuation route in which all of its lanes carry traffic in the northbound direction from Mobile towards Montgomery.

After passing through the very heart of Montgomery I - 65 makes a slight dogleg dowards the due north - in the direction of Birmingham, Ala., Nashville, Tenn., and so forth. On its way to Birmingham I - 65 bupasses the towns of Prattville, Clanton, Alabaster, and numerous villages that U.S. Highway 31 does pass through.

Next, I - 65 passes directly through the heart of Greater Birmingham. From Exit 246 to Exit 290, I - 65 provides at least six traffic lanes. A short portion of I - 65 running through North Birmingham has been nicknamed the "Malfunction Junction" because of its numerous traffic crashes over the decades. These crashes have included, on two separate occasions, the wrecking and melting of the bridge's steel support beams because of crashes by heavy trucks into them.

"Malfunction Junction" is the site of the vital highway interchange between the major Interstate Highways I - 65 and Interstate 20/Interstate 59, which share the same roadway through the most of the large cities Birmingham and Bessemer. Numerous numerous collisions between automobiles, and between automobiles & trucks, have occurred there every year because of the interchange of these two (actually three) busy Interstate Highways.

From Birmingham, I-65 continues north towards Cullman, Ala., and Decatur, Ala. Furthermore, the Interstate Highway spur route Interstate 565, splits off from I - 65 just north of Decatur, and it goes over 20 miles to the east to go into and through the major city of Huntsville, Ala. I - 565 provides Huntsville its only freeway connection to the outside world, thus connecting it with Birmingham, Montgomery, Nashville, and so forth.

Just north of downtown Birmingham, two major Interstate Highway projects are in varying stages of work. Interstate 22 will connect to I - 65 at the new Exit 265. Construction on this interchange began in August 2009. Preliminary roadwork to widen I - 65 on either side of the new interchange has been ongoing since 2007. The new Interstate 22 will provide a direct freeway route between Metropolitan Birmingham and Memphis, Tenn.. This highway is nearly completed, missing only short segments in Jefferson County, Ala., and Shelby County, TN, Shelby County, Tenn. Before the construction of I - 22, there was no direct freeway link between these two large metropolitan areas: the only one in existence required a very out-of-the way dogleg via Nashville, Tenn.

Memphis has a freeway connection to Metropolitan Atlanta Georgia using Interstate 40, Interstate 24, and Interstate 75 by way of the cities of Nashville and Chattanooga, Tenn. However, the new freeway route connecting Atlanta and Memphis will be significantly shorter. When I - 22 is completed, it will give Birmingham a full set of freeway connection to all of its major adjacent cities: going clockwise, these are Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Columbus, Georgia, Montgomery, Jackson, Miss., Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, Lousisiana. Traffic westwards from Atlanta can feed into all of these.

Just a few miles north of the interchange bewteen I - 65 and I - 22 could be the planned new interchange (Exit 274) of I - 65 with the proposed new Interstate 422. This bypass route will connect I-59 northeast of Birmingham, via its interchanges with I - 65 and I - 22 with Interstate 20/Interstate 59 southwest of Birmingham, at its interchange with the already-existing Interstate 459

and will serve as a interstate bypass of Birmingham augmenting the existing which already provides the southern loop of Birmingham. Construction of this interchange is still several years away, but right of way is in the process of being acquired to build I-422.

At Decatur, motorists can take Interstate 565 towards Huntsville.

From Decatur, the highway continues northward through Athens, Alabama to the Tennessee state line.

In 2004, following the death of President Ronald Reagan, a lengthy segment of I-65 from Jefferson County to Limestone County was designated "The Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway". The sign designating the north end of the segment includes a statement from Reagan's speech at Point Mallard Aquatic Center in nearby Decatur on July 4, 1984.

The Hyundai Corporation's new automotive plant in Montgomery is located just off I-65. It can be accessed using the Pintlala-Hope Hull exit (number 164).

The Mercedes Benz plant in Tuscaloosa County can also be accessed by taking the I-59 / I-20 south/west exit at the interchange in Birmingham.

The Kia Corporation is currently building a plant that will be less than an hour's drive away from the Interstate on the Alabama-Georgia border.

The entire Alabama portion of I-65 is dedicated as "Heroes Highway," in honor of the C.I.A. Officer, Johnny "Mike" Spann, and all of the people who died during the September 11 attacks.

Near the northern border of Alabama with Tennessee on southbound I-65 is located the Alabama Welcome Center and rest area. The unique feature of this rest area compared to others is the existence of a large rocket on the site referring to Alabama's and in particular Huntsville's contribution to U.S. space exploration.

Tennessee

Main article: Interstate 65 in Tennessee

Interstate 65 southbound in Nashville.

I-65 enters Tennessee from the south near the town of Ardmore, and passes through mostly rural territory for 65 miles (105 km). Its first city in Tennessee is Franklin. Then the route travels through Brentwood, Tennessee, downtown Nashville, Madison, Goodlettsville, White House, and exits near Portland into Kentucky to the north.

Kentucky

Main article: Interstate 65 in Kentucky

Interstate 65 northbound at the William H. Natcher Parkway in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The signs are new and in Clearview font.

Interstate 65 enters the state five miles (8 km) south of Franklin. It passes by the major cities of Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, and Louisville before exiting the state.

Throughout its length, it passes near Mammoth Cave National Park, Diamond Caverns, Bernheim Forest, the National Corvette Museum, and the Fort Knox Military Reservation.

I-65 has intersections with four of the parkways. The first major junction is with the William H. Natcher Parkway at Bowling Green, followed by the Cumberland Parkway north of the city between Smiths Grove and Park City. At Elizabethtown, it has two more parkway interchanges with the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway and the Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway. Interstate 65 also has interchanges with I-265, I-264, I-64, and I-71.

The widest stretch of Interstate 65 in its entirety is in Louisville at the Kentucky Route 1065 (Outer Loop), where the main line is 14 lanes wide. The highway crosses the Ohio River into Indiana on the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge.

At one time, the stretch of I-65 from Louisville to Elizabethtown was a toll road bearing the Kentucky Turnpike name. 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 Highway.

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

On July 15, 2007, Kentucky highway officials raised its speed limits on Interstate and State Parkway highways to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h). Until that date, Kentucky was the only state along I-65's path that had a speed limit of 65 mph (105 km/h).

Both of the Ford Motor Company truck plants in Louisville are accessible—The Explorer SUV plant is directly accessible from I-65 while the Kentucky Truck Plant, makers of the F-350 and Excursion SUV, is accessed via I-265.

In Bowling Green, I-65 comes within the proximity of a General Motors Corporation plant that makes the Chevrolet Corvette sports car, as well as the Cadillac XLR luxury roadster.

Indiana

Main article: Interstate 65 in Indiana

Interstate 65 just outside Indianapolis, Indiana

Interstate 65 enters the Hoosier state at Jeffersonville and Clarksville.

The section of Interstate 65 in downtown Indianapolis overlaps Interstate 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 "Spaghetti Bowl" due to the visual complexity of the overlapping freeways.

In mid-March 2007, a six-mile (10 km) section of Interstate 70 from the North Split to Interstate 465 east of downtown was restricted to automobiles only for the "Super 70" project, a massive rebuild and expansion of that freeway. Trucks over 13 tons are forced to divert through Interstate 65 if coming from the north and use the circular Interstate 465 to the south to reconnect to Interstate 70 East. Westbound traffic from Interstate 70 must loop north or south along Interstate 465 to get to Interstates 65 or 70. The Super 70 project was completed in November 2007.

In the summer of 2003, the portion of Interstate 65 that runs concurrently with Interstate 70 was closed to all traffic due to the "HyperFix" project. During that time, a new asphalt surface was installed and the overpasses were upgraded.

In 1999, the 25 mile (40 km) segment of Interstate 65 between the two Interstate 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.

Upon crossing into Lake County, Indiana, over the Kankakee River, the highway is known as the Casimir Pulaski Memorial Highway. It is known as this from that point to its northern terminus.

The northern terminus of Interstate 65 is only 1/8 mile (0.2 km) north of Interstate 90 (Indiana Toll Road). Prior to 2004, the interchange from Interstate 90 to Interstate 65 required making a physical left turn onto Interstate 65 via a traffic signal. Traffic from Interstate 65 to Interstate 90 bypassed the traffic signal via an isolated right-turn lane. It has since been grade-separated.

Major intersections

• Interstate 90 in Gary, Indiana
• Interstate 80/Interstate 94 in Gary, Indiana
• Interstate 74 in Indianapolis, Indiana
• Interstate 70 in Indianapolis, Indiana
• Interstate 71 in Louisville, Kentucky
• Interstate 64 in Louisville, Kentucky
• Interstate 40 in Nashville, Tennessee
• Interstate 24 in Nashville, Tennessee
• Interstate 565 near Decatur and Huntsville, Alabama
• Interstate 20/Interstate 59 in Birmingham, Alabama
• Interstate 85 in Montgomery, Alabama
• Interstate 10 in Mobile, Alabama

The future Interstate 22 will join and cross over I-65 before terminating at US 31 just a few blocks away. The target date for the completion of the final sections of the new route is 2012. However, Alabama Highway Department officials have been pushing for a 2010 completion time.

Auxiliary routes

• Prichard, Alabama, Mobile - I-165
• Spur beginning in Decatur, Alabama terminating in Huntsville, Alabama - I-565

• Louisville, Kentucky - I-265 (Louisville's outer beltway; also called the Gene Snyder Freeway; formerly the Jefferson Freeway)
• New Albany, Indiana - I-265 (to be eventually connected by bridge to the Kentucky part of I-265)

• Indianapolis, Indiana - I-465
• Indianapolis, Indiana - I-865

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