Interstate 64 (I-64): St. Louis to Hampton Roads Route and Safety Data

How long is I-64?

The FHWA Route Log books 867.25 miles to I-64 as of January 2026. Virginia has the most, 267.31, and Kentucky is next at 185.20. Missouri has the least: 40.59 miles from Wentzville to the Mississippi River.

Wikipedia and Interstate Guide both list 963.52 miles, which is closer to what a driver covers end to end. The difference is pavement I-64 shares with other Interstates, since the Route Log credits each shared mile to the other route. The largest overlap is the West Virginia Turnpike between Charleston and Beckley, where I-64 and I-77 run together for 63.88 miles. That is why West Virginia's row shows 126.44 miles even though a driver crossing the state travels about 190. Virginia loses 30.40 miles shared with I-81 between Lexington and Staunton. Illinois gives up 4.14 miles to I-57 and 2.70 to I-55, and Missouri 0.40 to I-55. Put back together, the route comes to 968.77 miles.

Where I-64 starts and ends

The western end is the I-70 interchange in Wentzville, Missouri, where I-64 also meets US 40 and US 61. The eastern end is the Bowers Hill Interchange in Chesapeake, Virginia, with I-264 and I-664. Near the coast the route curls into a fishhook around Norfolk, so for more than 12 miles the lanes signed as eastbound I-64 actually head west.

From St. Louis the road crosses the Poplar Street Bridge into Illinois, cuts across southern Illinois and southern Indiana, and reaches Kentucky at Louisville. It goes on through Lexington, Huntington, Charleston and Beckley, then across Virginia past Charlottesville and Richmond to Newport News, Hampton and Norfolk. Its last 35 miles, together with all of I-664, make up the Hampton Roads Beltway.

Interstate junctions along I-64

The list starts at I-70 in Wentzville and follows the route east. I-77 is listed twice in West Virginia and I-81 twice in Virginia, once where each overlap begins and once where it ends. I-70 also appears twice, at the western end in Wentzville and again in East St. Louis. Around Lexington, I-64 rides with I-75 for a few miles and uses its exit numbers. In Louisville the Kennedy Interchange, called Spaghetti Junction locally, was rebuilt from July 2013 through 2016 under the Ohio River Bridges Project. The Hampton Roads spurs are not in this list; they are under the auxiliary routes below.

Fatal crashes on I-64

From 2020 to 2024, 304 fatal crashes on I-64 killed 332 people, about 66 a year. Deaths peaked at 84 in 2021, dropped to 51 in 2023 and came back to 64 in 2024. Spread over the route, that works out to 6.9 deaths per 100 route miles a year, compared with 9.5 across the Interstate system. I-64 ranks 34th of the 56 routes long enough to have a rate, with first being the deadliest.

Virginia accounts for 156 of the deaths, close to half, on 297.71 miles counting the I-81 overlap, for a rate of 10.5. Missouri's 40.99 miles in the St. Louis area are worse per mile at 11.7, and Kentucky follows at 8.2. Jefferson County, Kentucky, home to Louisville, has the most deaths of any county on the route with 23. Next come Henrico County, Virginia, with 14, then St. Clair County, Illinois, and New Kent County, Virginia, with 13 each, and Albemarle County, Virginia, with 12. Indiana has the lowest state rate at 2.7, with West Virginia at 3.6 and Illinois at 3.8.

Counties with the most I-64 crash deaths

Bridges on I-64

The 2025 National Bridge Inventory counts 924 bridges carrying the I-64 main line. Half were built in 1970 or earlier. Forty-four rate Poor, 4.8 percent, while 710 rate Fair and 170 Good. West Virginia has the most Poor bridges, 14 of its 156, and Illinois has 10 of 124. Missouri's share is the highest, with 5 of 40 in Poor condition. Virginia carries the largest number of bridges, 334, and only 4 of them rate Poor.

The Sherman Minton Bridge, a double-decked arch that has carried I-64 over the Ohio River between Indiana and Louisville since 1961, shut on September 9, 2011, after inspectors found a crack in a main load-bearing steel member. It reopened on February 17, 2012. At the other end of the route, the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel opened with two lanes in 1957 and gained a parallel two-lane crossing in 1976. Work on a $3.86 billion expansion with twin two-lane bored tunnels began on October 29, 2020. It was still under construction in mid-2026, with officials aiming to finish by early 2027.

Tolls on I-64

FHWA's January 2023 toll inventory has one entry for I-64: the I-64 Express Lanes in Norfolk, operated by VDOT. These reversible lanes between I-264 and I-564 were HOV lanes until tolling began on January 10, 2018. FHWA records the facility as 8.4 miles, a bit more than the distance between the two mileposts it lists, 277.07 and 284.44. Using the lanes is a choice, since the general lanes next to them stay free. The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel is free today; it stopped charging in 1976, when its bonds were paid off. When its expansion opens, one of the new tunnels will carry tolled Express Lanes, and the general lanes will stay free.

A through trip does pay tolls in West Virginia. From the last Kanawha River crossing east of Charleston to the split with I-77 south of Beckley, I-64 is part of the West Virginia Turnpike. FHWA's inventory does not list the turnpike under I-64, so it is missing from the table.

Virginia has added priced lanes since the inventory date. The Chesapeake segment, from Bowers Hill to I-264, opened on February 18, 2024. On March 17, 2024, it and the Norfolk reversible lanes began charging around the clock. Prices reset about every five minutes based on congestion. You need an E-ZPass to enter, and carpools of two or more ride free with an E-ZPass Flex set to HOV-ON. The planned Hampton Roads Express Lanes network would reach 45 miles in each direction, from west of Denbigh Boulevard in Newport News to Bowers Hill.

I-64 auxiliary routes

Four three-digit routes branch from I-64. I-264 is two unrelated roads: a 22.93-mile road through Louisville, Shively and St. Matthews in Kentucky, and a 25.07-mile freeway in Virginia that heads toward Virginia Beach. The other three are in Hampton Roads. I-664, at 20.57 miles, completes the Hampton Roads Beltway with I-64. I-464 runs 5.67 miles and I-564 just 2.77.

How I-64 came together

I-64 was designated on August 14, 1957, but one stretch is older than that. The West Virginia Turnpike opened as a two-lane toll road on November 8, 1954, and did not have four lanes all the way until September 2, 1987.

The route took years to settle in two states. Indiana first planned the corridor along US 50 and US 150, but Governor Handley announced on February 12, 1958, that I-64 would take a southern course toward Evansville, and federal approval came in late 1960. In Virginia, three years of argument ended in 1961, when Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges picked a northern line parallel to US 250.

Southern Illinois opened in sections from December 1973 to December 1975. A 9th Street overpass in Louisville, finished in December 1976, completed the road from St. Louis to Charleston, and Kentucky's whole section was done that year. West Virginia's was complete by 1988.

Many St. Louis drivers still call I-64 Highway 40. The freeway carried only US 40 until I-64 signs went up in August 1987, and the city stretch is named the Jack Buck Memorial Highway. A rebuild of 10.5 miles between Spoede Road and Kingshighway began in April 2007, closed sections of the road in 2008 and 2009 and wrapped up in December 2009. The last link west to I-70 at Wentzville had opened that October 14.

Since 2007, VDOT has kept 440 hurricane evacuation gates on I-64, I-664 and Route 199 between Norfolk and Richmond. On the Peninsula, crews widened about 21 miles of I-64 to six lanes from Newport News to near Williamsburg in three segments, finished in December 2017, June 2019 and December 2021.

I-64 traffic and road conditions

For a wreck, closure or work zone on I-64 right now, check the traveler map run by the state you are driving in. All six are linked below, in order from Missouri to Virginia.

I-64 questions