Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway (Portsmouth)
| Martin Luther King Freeway | |
|---|---|
| Route information | |
| Maintained by Elizabeth River Crossings | |
| Length: | 4.9 mi (7.9 km) |
| Component highways: |
 US 58
|
| Major junctions | |
| South end: |
      I‑264 / US 460 Alt.
|
|
US 58 (London Boulevard) |
|
| North end: |
 SR 164 (Western Freeway) |
| Location | |
| Counties: | City of Portsmouth |
| Highway system | |
The Martin Luther King Freeway is a five-mile-long (8.0 km) stretch of U.S. Route 58 (US 58) in the state of Virginia that connects State Route 164 (SR 164, Western Freeway) and the Midtown Tunnel complex with midtown Portsmouth at London Boulevard (which continues on and carries the US 58 designation to points west), continuing past High Street near US 17 and ending at Interstate 264 (I-264) in a full interchange that opened on November 30, 2016.
The freeway effectively begins at the Pinners Point Interchange where the West Norfolk Bridge carries the Western Freeway across the Western Branch of the Elizabeth River, and where US 58 emerges from the Midtown Tunnel. It then continues south, connecting to London Boulevard in a full interchange, where it loses its US Route 58 designation as that route exits as part of London Boulevard. Continuing as SR 337, there is a partial interchange at High Street before the terminus with a full interchange at I-264/Alternate US Route 460.
As part of the long-term plan to improve the Midtown Tunnel connection, regional leaders and VDOT looked to extend the freeway from its terminus at High Street to I-264, creating a highway-speed alternate that connected not only I-264 to the Midtown Tunnel, but to the newly built Western Freeway as well. Efforts to extend the MLK Freeway have been in the works with VDOT as far back as the early 1990s, when the agency completed its initial environmental assessment. The project again went through an environmental assessment in 1999, which was also the same time that VDOT began effectively pursuing the parallel Midtown Tunnel.
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