Mississippi State Highway System
Mississippi's State Highway System is a network of roads maintained by the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT). It includes Interstates, U.S. Highways, and state highways. Mississippi has nine interstate highways: six primary interstates and three auxiliary interstates. The longest is I-55, and the shortest is I-110. There are 14 U.S. highways, with US 49 the longest in the state and US 425 the shortest. State highways use different numbering: main routes are numbered 1–76; most three-digit routes in the northern part are 300s, those in the southern part are 600s, and 700s–900s are usually short connectors or spurs. The Natchez Trace Parkway runs from Natchez to Nashville and is managed by the National Park Service.
Mississippi started building its highway system after Governor Theodore Bilbo asked Horace Stansel to study needs in 1928. Stansel proposed creating a state highway system in 1930, and the system grew over time. Before 1987, there were only two major four-lane highways besides the Interstates: US 49 from Yazoo City to Gulfport and US 82 from Greenville to Winona. In 1987, the Four-Lane Highway Program funded about $1.3 billion to add more than 1,000 miles of four-lane highways. MDOT was created in 1992, combining several existing services into one agency, and later programs like Vision 21 expanded efforts in 2002.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:14 (CET).