| US 49 | |||
| Get started | Gulfport | ||
| End | Helena | ||
| Length | 334 mi | ||
| Length | 538 km | ||
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US 49 is a US Highway in the US state of Mississippi. The road forms a north-south route through southern, central, and western Mississippi from Gulfport through Hattiesburg and Jackson to the Arkansas border at Helena. US 49 splits into US 49E and US 49W in Mississippi between Yazoo City and Tutwiler. US 49 is 538 kilometers long in Mississippi.
- SEARCHFORPUBLICSCHOOLS: Provides a list of all public primary and high schools in Mississippi, including street address, contact phone, and zip code for each school.
Travel directions
The US 49E.
US 49 forms a diagonal north-south route. It begins in Gulfport on US 90 on the Gulf of Mexico and crosses Interstate 10. The route then heads northwest, as a divided highway with 2×2 lanes over most of the route. The four-lane road passes through Hattiesburg, where Interstate 59 intersects, and the state capital Jackson, where Interstate 20 and Interstate 55 connect.crosses. The route then continues in four lanes to Yazoo City, where the split into US 49E and US 49W begins. US 49E runs east through Greenwood, and is entirely single-lane. US 49W goes west through Indianola and can be seen as the main route, and is also a four-lane road through Indianola. In Tutwiler, the two routes rejoin, after which the road takes a single lane to Clarksdale. From Clarksdale, it doubles as US 61 heads north, then US 49 branches west and crosses the Mississippi River via the Helena Bridge to Arkansas.
- USPRIVATESCHOOLSFINDER.COM: Provides a list of all private primary and elementary schools in Mississippi, including street address, contact phone, and zip code for each school.
History
US 49 at Jackson.
US 49 was created in 1926. The route then only ran from Gulfport to Jackson and was therefore entirely in the state of Mississippi. The route was extended to Clarksdale in 1927 and to Brinkley, Arkansas in 1963, establishing the current route. It has been a policy of scrapping the split US Highways since the 1930s, but US 49 in Mississippi has survived until now.
US 49 was largely a gravel road when it was created, only a section from Gulfport to Saucier, Jackson and Clarksdale were paved. In the early 1930s, the section from Jackson to Flora was paved, as well as much of the route from Yazoo City to Indianola. Beginning in the mid-1930s, the route from Gulfport to Jackson was paved, which was completed in 1938. Parts of US 49 were also paved in western Mississippi, and in 1941 the route via US 49W was completely paved. By 1944, the last section of US 49E had also been paved. The last unpaved section was between US 61 and the Mississippi River. This was because for a long time there was only a ferry service over the Mississippi River, the Helena Bridge only opened to traffic on July 27, 1961.
Already around 1960 the first parts were widened to a divided highway . This happened first in and south of Hattiesburg, and between Saucier and Wiggins. By 1964 much of this route had been doubled, and the section from Mendenhall to Jackson was also doubled. This effectively gave US 49 between Gulfport and Jackson a higher priority than the construction of the Interstate Highways. By 1967, nearly the entire route from Gulfport to Jackson had been doubled to 2×2 lanes.
North of Jackson, US 49 was later doubled to 4 lanes. Around 1977, the first section between Bentonia and Yazoo City was widened to 4 lanes. A year later, the first section from Jackson was also doubled to 4 lanes. By 1980, the doubling between Jackson and Yazoo City was completed. In 1986, Clarksdale’s eastern bypass opened and in 1991 the first four-lane section opened south of Indianola. In 1996, the double-numbering of US 49 and US 61 north of Clarksdale was completed. In 2005, the section between Yazoo City and Indianola was also completely widened to 4 lanes. In 2022, a 12-kilometer section between Richland and Florence south of Jackson will be widened to 2×3 lanes.
Traffic intensities
Every day, 41,000 to 55,000 vehicles travel between Gulfport and I-10 and 12,000 to 18,000 vehicles continue as far as Hattiesburg. Up to 30,000 vehicles and 17,000 to 20,000 vehicles passed through Hattiesburg between Hattiesburg and Jackson. Between Jackson and Yazoo City, 10,000 to 13,000 vehicles and 5,000 to 7,000 vehicles continued as far as Indianola. Between Indianola and Clarksdale, 4,000 to 5,000 vehicles and 4,000 vehicles drove on the Clarksdale bypass. On the double numbering with US 61, about 7,500 vehicles and 5,400 vehicles drove on the bridge over the Mississippi River.
