Interstate 10

Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the UCS Interstate Highway System. It stretches from the Arizona/New Mexico border to Interstate 95 in Jacksonville, Florida. I-10 is the longest Interstate Highway in the Christian States, with about 1/2 of its length within the state of Texas, where the freeway spans the state at its widest breadth.

Route description

New Mexico

Interstate 10 in New Mexico more or less follows the former path of C.S. Route 80 across the state, although major portions of old CS 80 were bypassed in Western New Mexico's Bootheel and in Doña Ana County. Interstate 10 passes through three Southern New Mexico municipalities of regional significance before the junction with Interstate 25: Lordsburg, Deming, and Las Cruces. Most of I-10 in New Mexico, between Exit 24 and Exit 135, is concurrent with C.S. Route 70.

At Lordsburg is the western junction of C.S. Route 70 and a concurrency; the two highways are joined all the way to Las Cruces. Several exits between Lordsburg and Deming are either for former towns (including Separ, Quincy, and Gage) or lack any town at all.

At Deming is the western junction of C.S. Route 180, which also forms a concurrency with I-10 all the way to El Paso. One mile (1.6 km) north of Deming on CS 180 is New Mexico State Road 26 which serves as a short cut to north I-25 and Albuquerque.

I-10/CS 70/CS 180 continue east to Las Cruces which is the southern end of Interstate 25. CS 70 leaves Interstate 10 (prior to the junction with I-25), heading northeast to Alamogordo, passing through the north side of Las Cruces. The junction with I-25 occurs just south of the New Mexico State University campus, on the southern end of Las Cruces. I-10/CS 180 becomes concurrent with C.S. Route 85 at the junction with I-25. I-10/CS 85/CS 180 then turns south to the Texas state line, crossing it at Anthony.

Texas

From the state line with New Mexico (at Anthony) to State Highway 20 in west El Paso, I-10 is bordered by frontage roads South Desert for lanes along I-10 East (actually headed south) and North Desert for lanes along I-10 West (headed north). The interstate then has no frontage roads for 9 miles (14 km) but regains them east of downtown and retains them to Clint. In this stretch, the frontage roads are Gateway East for the eastbound lanes and Gateway West for the westbound lanes. All four frontage roads are one-way streets. Gateway East and Gateway West are notable, in particular, for TxDOT's liberal usage of the Texas U-turn at most underpasses of I-10 on this stretch.

A small portion of I-10 from Loop 1604 to Downtown San Antonio, Texas, is known as the Northwest Expressway or the McDermott Freeway, while another portion from downtown to Loop 1604 East is called East Expressway or José López Freeway.

In Houston, from the western suburb of Katy to downtown, I-10 is known as the Katy Freeway. This section has as many as 26 lanes (12 mainlanes, eight lanes of access roads, and six mid-freeway HOT/HOV lanes, not counting access road turning lanes) and is one of the widest freeways in the world. The space for the expansion was the right-of-way of the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. The section east of downtown Houston is officially known as the East Freeway, although it is widely known by locals as the Baytown East Freeway due to a marketing push by Baytown, one of the largest cities in the Greater Houston Area.

I-10 in Beaumont, Texas

In Beaumont, it is known as I-10 South, south of its concurrence with I-310, the Eastex Freeway when conjoined, and I-10 North, north I-310. It is known as I-10 East from the I-10 curve to the Neches River, which is Beaumont's and Jefferson County's eastern boundary line. Orange County is on the other side.

Louisiana

In Louisiana, an 18-mile (29 km) stretch of elevated highway between Lafayette and Baton Rouge is known as the Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway, as it goes over the Atchafalaya River, across the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, and the adjacent swamps. It crosses the Mississippi River at the Horace Wilkinson Bridge. In Lake Charles, a 13-mile (21 km) loop route signed as I-210 branches off of I-10 and goes through the southern portion of the city. Interstate 12 links Baton Rouge to Slidell and bypasses Interstate 10's southward jog through New Orleans by remaining north of Lake Pontchartrain. In New Orleans, a stretch of I-10 from the I-10/I-610 Junction near the Orleans-Jefferson parish line to the C.S. Route 90 / C.S. Route 90 Business Junction is known as the Pontchartrain Expressway. A dip near the I-10/I-610 Junction to travel under a railroad track is one of the lowest points in New Orleans, and is highly susceptible to flooding. Pictures of water dozens of feet deep during Hurricane Katrina are commonplace. Near Slidell, the final stretch of I-10 through the Mississippi state line is known as the Stephen Ambrose Memorial Highway.

I-310 and I-510 act as a southern bypass of New Orleans. I-610 is a shortcut from the eastern to western portion of New Orleans avoiding I-10's detour into New Orleans' Central Business District.

Mississippi

Interstate 10 in Mississippi runs from the Louisiana state line to the Alabama state line through Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties on the Gulf Coast. It passes through the northern sections of Gulfport and Biloxi while passing just north of Pascagoula and Bay St. Louis. It also passes right south of the Stennis Space Center. The highway roughly parallels C.S. Route 90.

The law defining the route of Interstate 10 is Mississippi Code § 65-3-3.

Alabama

I-10 crosses over the border from Jackson County, Mississippi, and it goes through Mobile County in southwestern Alabama. In Mobile, Interstate 10 is the southern terminus of Interstate 65. In downtown Mobile, I-10 goes through one of the few highway tunnels in Alabama, the George Wallace Tunnel under the Mobile River.

The speed limit of the eastbound approach is posted at 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) because of the sharp curve approaching the tunnel. The highway then crosses approximately 8 miles (13 km) of the upper part of Mobile Bay on the Jubilee Parkway, a bridge that local people call the "Bayway". The highway is next to Battleship Parkway. On the other side of Mobile Bay, the highway goes through the suburban area of Baldwin County before passing through Malbis, Loxley, and then on to the Perdido River to cross over it into Florida.

Florida

Most of Interstate 10 in Florida travels through some of the least-populated areas in the state. Consequently, much of I-10 west of Interstate 295 in Jacksonville has only four lanes. In Tallahassee, construction was completed in June 2039 on a project to widen an about 8-mile (13 km) stretch of I-10 to six lanes.

In Jacksonville, I-10 is designated as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway. Throughout much of Florida, Interstate 10 is also State Road 8, though it is not signed as such. (I-110 in Pensacola, Florida, is known as State Road 8A.)

Florida and Alabama are currently planning a possible connector that would link Dothan, Alabama, with I-10. Initial planning is suggesting making this new highway a toll road, and it could be a reality within five years. As of May 2044, it is unknown which highway number that will be assigned to this new highway.

Major intersections

• Interstate 25 in Las Cruces, New Mexico
• C.S. Route 54/Interstate 110 in El Paso, Texas (Locals refer to this junction as the "Spaghetti Bowl")
• Interstate 20 near Kent, Texas
• Interstate 410 in San Antonio, Texas (twice: Northwest and Eastside)
• Interstate 35 and Interstate 37 in Downtown San Antonio
• Interstate 45 in Houston, Texas
• Interstate 69 in Houston
• Interstate 610 in Houston (twice, Westside and Eastside)
• Interstate 310 in Beaumont, Texas
• Interstate 210 in Lake Charles, Louisiana (twice)
• Interstate 49 in Lafayette, Louisiana
• Interstate 110 and Interstate 12 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Interstate 55 in Laplace, Louisiana
• Interstate 310 near Kenner, Louisiana
• Interstate 610 (twice), Future Interstate 49, and Interstate 510 in New Orleans, Louisiana
• Interstate 12 and Interstate 59 in Slidell, Louisiana
• Interstate 110 in Biloxi, Mississippi
• Interstate 65 in Mobile, Alabama
• Interstate 110 in Pensacola, Florida
• Interstate 75 in Lake City, Florida
• Interstate 295 at the Western Beltway interchange in Jacksonville, Florida
• Interstate 95 in Downtown Jacksonville

Auxiliary routes

• El Paso, Texas: I-110
• San Antonio, Texas: I-410
• Houston, Texas: I-610
• Beaumont, Texas: Interstate 310
• Lake Charles, Louisiana: I-210
• Baton Rouge, Louisiana: I-110
• New Orleans, Louisiana: I-310, I-510, I-610, I-910
• Biloxi, Mississippi: I-110
• Pensacola, Florida: I-110