I-55 enters Missouri at the Arkansas border near Cooter. It runs northward through mostly flat land in the Bootheel, where it has an interchange with U.S. Route412 (US412) and I-155. The highway continues over bumpy land through or near the towns of Hayti, Portageville, and New Madrid before reaching an interchange with US60 and I-57 just south of Sikeston. The next interchange, US62, provides access into the city of Sikeston and one of its most popular attractions, Lambert's Cafe, the "Home of the Throwed Rolls".
I-55 then goes through rural areas again as it makes a north-northwesterly run through the towns of Perryville and Ste. Genevieve before entering the southern reaches of the St. Louis metro area at the interchange with US67 and the Twin Cities of Festus and Crystal City. US61 and US67 run concurrently immediately east of I-55 nearly due north through the Jefferson County towns of Herculaneum, Pevely (where the Interstate expands from four lanes to six), Barnhart (and then to eight), Imperial, and finally Arnold before crossing the Meramec River into St. Louis County.
From Richardson Road in Arnold to I-270, I-55 is 10 lanes wide. The Interstate narrows back down to eight lanes past I-270, through southern St. Louis County, and into the city of St. Louis. In the last few miles of I-55 in the state of Missouri, there is an interchange and brief overlap with I-44 before reaching the Poplar Street Bridge crossing into Illinois.
The white supremacy group Ku Klux Klan began fighting several court battles with the state of Missouri after the state disputed its right to sponsor a stretch of freeway in Saint Louis County and Jefferson County, near St. Louis. In March2001, after a US District Court judge found that blocking the Klan's sponsorship was unconstitutional, the Court of Appeals ruled that the state must erect signs announcing the group's sponsorship. However, the Missouri Legislature later voted to rename the stretch of I-55 the "Rosa Parks Freeway" in honor of the Montgomery civil rights hero who began the Montgomery bus boycott. When asked how she felt about this honor, she is reported to have commented, "It is always nice to be thought of."[2] The Klan were eventually dropped from the scheme on April4, 2001, on the grounds that, for the duration of their sponsorship, they had not once cleaned the freeway.
I-155: A spur running from I-55 in Hayti, Missouri, to US51 in Dyersburg, Tennessee; overlaps with US 412 for its entire length. Eight miles (13km) of this highway will be absorbed into the newly extended I-69 in the future.
I-255: The eastern third of the beltway around the St. Louis Metro Area (with I-270 forming the remaining two-thirds)
I-55 BL: I-55 has three business loops in Missouri.
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