Interstate 40 (I-40) Weather Road Conditions

I40 (Interstate 40) sits along the southern half of the United States and runs east to west. Established in 1956, it is about 2,500 miles long and runs through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. It is the third longest highway in the nation, after the I-90 and the I-80. 

Some of the major cities along the I-40 route include Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Memphis, Knoxville, and many cities in North Carolina. In the west, part of I-40 overlaps the historic Route 66, but the I40 is also great to travel if you’re looking for an Arizona Road Trip that begins in Phoenix and ends in Flagstaff. 

Many parts of the I40 span rivers big and small. In 2002, a barge collided with a bridge along I-40 in Oklahoma, causing the bridge member to fail and a 580-foot section of the bridge to fall into the Arkansas River. A total of 14 people were killed in this accident. In May of 2021, another bridge member was found to be faulty. Cracks appeared in a bridge member of the Hernando de Soto Bridge, causing it to close.