Arkansas Roads - US 71/270

US 71 and 71/270



US 71 NB in 1978, courtesy Michael Summa. Walmart sure saw an opportunity...


NB at Future I-49 construction just inside the border, looking left and right at the extension of what is currently numbered AR 549 (not a coincidence) into Louisiana and down to Shreveport.


State Line Ave. NB in Texarkana between 7th St. (US 67 NB/US 82 EB) and 8th St. (US 67 SB/US 82 WB). US 71 NB follows 8th St. over from Hickory St., so technically I'm not on a highway yet, although the SB side is still US 71 (which turns onto 7th St.). However, that SB side is actually in Texas, because this is State Line Ave. after all, so photos from there are on the Texas page (linked at bottom).


Past that intersection, this is one of the only US 59 shields left in town. US 59 now bypasses the city in Texas, forming the west side of a loop (named Loop, creatively) with three freeway numbers (because US 59 departs partway through the TX side).


SB at Hazel St., a slight cutoff for US 71 traffic turning left on 7th St., and then NB at the same point, a similar cutoff in that direction. Unlike 9th St. or other streets to the north that could be used to get over from Hickory St., use of Hazel St. is encouraged, but despite signage, this is not the official route.


Because of its use, it's well-signed with old shields, including here SB at 7th St. The closeup includes both an M6-1 (arrow) label and R6-1 (one-way sign) label - it's just a coincidence that they have the same numbers and are both arrows. It's not a coincidence that they both use a very strange-looking font - it's whatever AHTD can cut out of the non-reflective black background at such a small scale.


Looking east down 17th St. and at the end of short 28th St. Amazingly, the Texas and Arkansas street grids don't line up either in layout or numbering, so 17th St. is between Texas' 23rd and 24th, and 28th St. is almost directly across from 34th. It's like Manhattan and the Bronx, except instead of being divided by the East River, here the only division is about 70 feet of pavement.


NB at the I-30 interchange, where Texas construction spills over into Arkansas. No knock on Texas education, but I never saw "1 miles" elsewhere in Arkansas. In fact, I've only seen it consistently in one other state - Pennsylvania. Draw your own conclusions.


Former US 71, now Polk CR 56, NB at a bridge that probably carried the original 1926 highway. Little county roads in southern states don't necessarily have fences, but the cow didn't try to block my path and demand ransom.


This other old bridge is on old US 71/270 (Polk CR 109) just northeast of their junction outside Mena. You can see in the third photo (or can you?) that it's over the Ouachita River. In the last photo, CR 108 bears to the right carrying former US 270 just before the modern junction.


On the other side of US 270, old 71 has a second old curve. The modern route cuts them both off with one higher-speed, continuous sweeping curve. The first photo is correct in that US 59 is now on US 71 here, but the last photo shows the original US 59 SB merge from the right.

Heading south from there.


US 71 NB joins I-40 EB with I-540 and leaves without it, courtesy Matt Kleiman. The other road at Exit 13 is AR 162. Possibly back when this sign was manufactured, US 71 did go both directions, meeting US 64 to the south and taking that route into Fort Smith instead of 40.

US 67 and US 71/67
US 270 alone

Into Texas on US 71

Into Louisiana on US 71
Into Missouri on US 71
Onto AR 549/Future I-49
To AR 245
To I-30
State Line Rd. Non-Roads photos
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