U.S. Route 78 - Future

Future

There is a freeway portion of US 78 that begins from the Tennessee / Mississippi border near southeast Memphis and continues through Mississippi to Graysville, Alabama, and the freeway is under construction all the way to Birmingham, Alabama, where it will junction with Interstate 65 and U.S. Highway 31. Although there are major Interstate highways near this freeway's endpoints, it is a discrete segment of controlled-access freeway. This will change over the next few years as it is upgraded to become the new Interstate 22. It is uncertain whether US 78 will be decommissioned west of Birmingham or the old route recommissioned as US 78 upon completion of Interstate 22.

If the old route is recommissioned as US 78 after the opening of I-22, parts of I-22 and US 78 would be forced to overlap. A stretch from just west of Hamilton, Alabama to the first exit in Mississippi, as well as a stretch from MS 25 in Fulton, Mississippi to the next exit west of Fulton after crossing the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway will overlap. The Hamilton area overlap would be due to the old US 78 routing no longer exists west of Hamilton having been upgraded to I-22 from Weston westward into Mississippi. The second overlap would be necessary because the old US 78 no longer exists west of downtown Fulton, Mississippi due to the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway and no bridge in place to carry US 78 traffic on the former route.

In Mississippi, the old routing is numbered as Mississippi State Route 178. In Alabama, the old routing is numbered as Alabama State Route 118 (west of Jasper) and Alabama State Route 5 (east of Jasper to Graysville where US 78 is co-signed with Alabama 5 into Birmingham.