Alabama In Alabama, I-65 passes through or near four major metropolitan areas:
Mobile,
Montgomery,
Birmingham, and
Huntsville. I-65 begins its path northward in Mobile at its junction with
I-10. From I-10, I-65 runs west of downtown Mobile and through the northern suburbs of the city before turning northeast towards Montgomery. In Montgomery, I-65 connects with the southern end of
I-85. In the Birmingham suburbs, I-65 has an
interchange with
I-459 and another interchange in the city at
I-20/
I-59. North of downtown,
I-22 branches off I-65 toward
Memphis. From Birmingham, I-65 continues north, crossing the
Tennessee River near
Decatur. A few miles north of the river, it intersects
I-565, a short
spur route which provides access to Huntsville. It then continues north out of the
Tennessee Valley to
Tennessee toward
Nashville.
Tennessee I-65 enters Tennessee from the south near the town of
Ardmore and passes through mostly rural territory for . It then passes
Lewisburg. Then it passes close to
Columbia and crosses
Saturn Parkway, which brings travelers to the town of
Spring Hill. I-65 then continues on to reach
I-840 and progresses until it intersects
State Route 96 (SR 96) at
Franklin. Then the highway goes through
Brentwood, and enters
Nashville, where it first interchanges with
I-440. It then has brief concurrences with
I-40 and
I-24 near downtown Nashville. The freeway then meets
State Route 155 (SR 155, Briley Parkway), and after passing through
Madison, meets
SR 386 (Vietnam Veterans Boulevard) in
Goodlettsville. The freeway then passes through
Millersville and
White House, and then, close to
Portland, crosses into
Kentucky.
Kentucky interchange in
Bowling Green, Kentucky I-65 enters the state south of
Franklin. Throughout its length, it passes near
Mammoth Cave National Park,
Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, the
National Corvette Museum, and
Fort Knox. The first major intersection in the state is with
I-165 (formerly the
William H. Natcher Parkway) at
Bowling Green. I-65 has intersections with three of the
parkways in the state. The first major junction is with the
Cumberland Parkway near Rocky Hill. At
Elizabethtown, it has two more parkway interchanges with the
Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway and the
Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway. In Louisville, I-65 also has interchanges with
I-265,
I-264,
I-64, and
I-71. The widest stretch of I-65 in its entirety is in Louisville at
Kentucky Route 1065 (KY 1065, Outer Loop), where the main line is 14 lanes wide. The highway crosses the
Ohio River into Indiana on a toll bridge. The southbound side is called the
John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge (southbound) and the northbound side is called the
Abraham Lincoln Bridge. The latter bridge opened in October 2016 as part of the
Ohio River Bridges Project. Prior to the project, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge (completed in 1963) carried traffic in both directions. The project also included reconstruction of the
I-65/I-64/I-71 convergence interchange just south of the Kennedy Bridge, as well as renovating the older span to carry six lanes of southbound traffic. Additionally, a second six-lane cable-stayed bridge upstream on the Ohio River, the
Lewis and Clark Bridge, was built as part of the project, opening in December 2016 to complete the I-265 loop around Louisville. At one time, the stretch of I-65 from Louisville to Elizabethtown was a toll road, called the
Kentucky Turnpike. The bonds that financed the road have been paid off, and tolls are no longer collected. All signs of the former turnpike have been removed. On November 15, 2006, the stretch of I-65 from Bowling Green to Louisville was renamed the
Abraham Lincoln Memorial Expressway. On February 12, 2007, a bill passed the
Kentucky Senate to rename I-65 in
Jefferson County the
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway. Signs were posted July 25, 2007. On July 15, 2007, Kentucky highway officials raised the speed limits on most Interstate and state parkway highways to . Prior to that, Kentucky was the only state along I-65 that had a maximum speed limit of .
Indiana I-65 enters Indiana at
Jeffersonville and
Clarksville. Miles 0–9 were rebuilt, widened, and realigned from north of Sellersburg to the Ohio River during 2008–2010, giving great traffic relief to the fast-growing Indiana suburbs of Louisville. Over 300,000 of the 1.5 million people in Louisville's CMSA live in its Indiana counties. A section of I-65 in
Downtown Indianapolis runs concurrently with
I-70. The junctions are often referred to as the "North Split" and the "South Split", forming a section of Interstate locally known as the "Inner Loop" or "The Spaghetti Bowl" due to the visual complexity of the intersecting ramps and overpasses. In mid-March 2007, a section of I-70 from the North Split to
I-465 east of downtown was restricted to automobiles only for the "Super 70" project, a massive rebuild and expansion of that freeway. Trucks over were forced to divert through I-65 if coming from the north and use the circular I-465 to the south to reconnect to I-70 eastbound. Westbound traffic from I-70 was required to loop north or south along I-465 to get to I-65 or I-70. The Super 70 project was completed in November 2007. In mid-2003, the portion of I-65 that runs concurrently with I-70 was closed to all traffic due to the "HyperFix" project. During that time, a new concrete surface was installed and the overpasses were upgraded. In 1999, the segment of I-65 between the two I-465 interchanges was renamed the
Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds Highway. North of
Lafayette near
Brookston, the road passes through the
Meadow Lake Wind Farm for several miles, with the turbines and standards spaced out in order to avoid a collapse onto the highway. The
Fowler Ridge Wind Farm is also visible on both sides of the highway. From its crossing into
Lake County over the Kankakee River to its northern terminus, the highway is known as the
Casimir Pulaski Memorial Highway. Prior to 2004, the northern terminus of I-65 was only north of the
Indiana Toll Road (
I-90). Traffic going from I-90 to I-65 had to stop at a traffic signal to make a left turn. Traffic from I-65 to I-90 bypassed the traffic signal via an isolated right-turn lane. In 2004, the interchange was fully grade-separated, so it is now one interchange involving I-65, I-90, US 12, and US 20, thereby eliminating a
connection gap in the
Interstate Highway System. ==History==