U.S. Route 63

Major cities
	Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Jonesboro, Arkansas; West Plains, Missouri; Rolla, Missouri; Jefferson City, Missouri; Columbia, Missouri; Macon, Missouri; Kirksville, Missouri; Ottumwa, Iowa; Oskaloosa, Iowa; Waterloo, Iowa; Rochester, Minnesota; Red Wing, Minnesota;

Template:Infobox U.S. Route U.S. Route 63 is a 1,286 mile (2,070 km) long north-south United States highway primarily in the Midwestern United States. The southern terminus of the route is at Interstate 20 in Ruston, Louisiana. The northern terminus is at U.S. Route 2 in Benoit, Wisconsin, about 60 miles (97 km) east of Duluth, Minnesota.

Route description

Louisiana

U.S. 63 overlaps U.S. 167 for its entire route in Louisiana, from Junction City (at the Arkansas line) south to Ruston, a distance of 35 miles.^[1]

Arkansas

U.S. 63 overlaps numerous other Interstate and U.S. highways on its way from Junction City, at the Louisiana line, north to Mammoth Spring, at the Missouri line; along the way it crosses one U.S. highway twice, and just misses crossing three others twice ^[2]:

Continuing from Ruston, Louisiana, U.S. 167 from Junction City to El Dorado
I-530 and U.S. 65, along with U.S. 79, in Pine Bluff
U.S. 79 again from Pine Bluff to Stuttgart
U.S. 165 in Stuttgart
U.S. 70 in Hazen
I-40 from Hazen to West Memphis. A concurrent segment of U.S. 70 and U.S. 79 (again) serves as its service road just west of West Memphis, though they never cross; it also crosses U.S. 49 at Brinkley.
I-55 from West Memphis to Turrell, silently picking up U.S. 61 at Turrell and U.S. 64 at Marion
U.S. 49 again in Jonesboro
U.S. 67 in the twin cities of Hoxie and Walnut Ridge, but only temporarily until the U.S. 67 freeway is extended from Newport to the Walnut Ridge-Hoxie area
U.S. 412 alone from Portia to Imboden
U.S. 62 and U.S. 412 from Imboden to Hardy; it just misses meeting U.S. 167 again at its northern terminus at Ash Flat, near Hardy

Many of these concurrencies and multiple crossings occurred when the south end of U.S. 63 was extended from Turrell to Ruston in 1999, in a very different direction from the Mammoth Spring-to-Turrell segment; the only non-concurrent parts of the extension are from Hazen to Stuttgart (formerly Arkansas Highway 11) and Pine Bluff to El Dorado (formerly Arkansas Highway 15). In addition, U.S. 63 from Jonesboro (including the U.S. 49 concurrency) to Turrell is designated as future Interstate 555, and will be yet another concurrency once that becomes final.

Though U.S. 63 as a stand-alone highway had always ended at Turrell before the 1999 extension, in the past it was concurrent with U.S. 61, 64, 70 and 79 (and later I-55) on into Memphis, Tennessee, over the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge; unlike the 1999 extension, this concurrency to Memphis was generally in line with the rest of U.S. 63. Though some maps continued to show this concurrency until 1999, Arkansas had not recognized U.S. 63 south of Turrell for many years, since at least the 1960s.

Missouri

The highway passes South-to-North through Missouri, from Arkansas to Iowa, serving cities such as Rolla, Jefferson City, Columbia, Moberly and Kirksville. Notable routes that are intersected include U.S. Route 60, Interstate 44 at Rolla, U.S. Route 50 (which it shares a concurrency with into Jefferson City south of the Missouri River until it reaches the junction with U.S. Route 54), U.S. Route 54 (which it overlaps in Jefferson City from the junction with U.S. Route 50 and crosses the Missouri River with on the Jefferson City Bridge), Interstate 70 at Columbia, U.S. Route 36 at Macon, and U.S. Route 136 at Lancaster. From West Plains through Cabool, the road (concurrent with U.S. 60 from Willow Springs to Cabool) is four lanes. North of Cabool to its concurrency with US 50, US 63 mainly follows two-lane pavement, with some spots having an additional truck climbing lane added. Through Jefferson City up until Kirksville (excepting downtown Macon, where it returns to two-lane pavement), this highway remains on four-lane divided highway with some freeway sections in Jefferson City and Columbia. North of Kirksville, the highway is two lanes until the Iowa border.

US 63 in Missouri was Route 7 from 1922 to 1926.

Iowa

U.S. 63 passes South-to-North through Iowa. It enters the state from Missouri south of Bloomfield. Between Ottumwa and Oskaloosa, the highway is an expressway, with freeway bypasses of Ottumwa and Eddyville, which is part of an expressway to connect Des Moines with Burlington. Near Malcom, U.S. 63 meets Interstate 80. Only a few miles later, it joins U.S. 6 westbound for several miles near Grinnell, then goes north again. At Toledo, it intersects U.S. 30 and at Waterloo, U.S. 63 meets U.S. 20. There is an expressway segment north of Waterloo to its intersection with Iowa Highway 3 and a freeway bypass of New Hampton. The highway enters Minnesota just north of Chester.

Minnesota

U.S. 63 enters Minnesota from Iowa south of Spring Valley. It goes north and near Rochester, U.S. 63 meets Interstate 90. After passing through Rochester, it continues north and meets U.S. Route 61 at Lake City. The two routes run concurrent to Red Wing, where U.S. 63 turns north and crosses the Mississippi River to enter Wisconsin over the Eisenhower Bridge.

The Minnesota section of U.S. 63 is defined as Routes 59 and 161 in Minnesota Statutes §§ 161.114(2) and 161.115(92).[1],[2]

Wisconsin

U.S. 63 enters Wisconsin south of Hager City. Near Baldwin, U.S. 63 intersects Interstate 94. The highway briefly overlaps near Spooner with U.S. Route 53. At Trego, they separate and U.S. 63 runs southwest to northeast, ending near Benoit at U.S. Route 2.

References

Browse numbered routes
← US 62	MO	→ Error: Invalid type: Interstate
← Iowa 62	IA	→ Iowa 64
← MN 62	MN	→ MN 64
← WIS 62	WI	→ WIS 64

[1] Louisiana's US Highways

[2] Official Arkansas state highway map (large PDF)

[1]

[2]

v t e United States Numbered Highway System
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 87 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 101 163 400 412 425
Mainline highways Divided routes Special routes
Routes in italics are no longer a part of the system. Highlighted routes are considered main routes of the system.