U.S. 63 overlaps numerous other Interstate and U.S. highways on its way from Junction City, at the Louisiana line, north to Mammoth Spring, at the Missouri line; along the way it crosses one U.S. highway twice, and just misses crossing three others twice:
Continuing from Ruston, Louisiana, U.S. 167 from Junction City to El Dorado
I-530 and U.S. 65, along with U.S. 79, in Pine Bluff
I-40 from Hazen to West Memphis. A concurrent segment of U.S. 70 and U.S. 79 serves as its service road just west of West Memphis, though they never cross; it also crosses U.S. 49 at Brinkley.
I-55 from West Memphis to Turrell, silently picking up U.S. 61 at Turrell and U.S. 64 at Marion
U.S. 62 and U.S. 412 from Imboden to Hardy; it just misses meeting U.S. 167 again at its northern terminus at Ash Flat, near Hardy
Many of these concurrencies and multiple crossings occurred when the south end of U.S. 63 was extended from Turrell to Ruston in 1999, in a very different direction from the Mammoth Spring-to-Turrell segment; the only non-concurrent parts of the extension are from Hazen to Stuttgart and Pine Bluff to El Dorado. In addition, U.S. 63 from Jonesboro to Turrell is now designated as Interstate 555, which involved building service roads and a few other upgrades to interstate standards. It has been questioned as to whether or not U.S. 63 will be rerouted to eliminate the dogleg from Jonesboro to West Memphis to Hazen. Possible reroutings could be U.S. 63/49 from Jonesboro to Brinkley and U.S. 63/70 from Brinkley to Hazen or U.S. 63/AR 1 from Jonesboro to Forrest City and U.S. 63/70 from Forrest City to Hazen.
U.S. 63 passes south-to-north through Iowa. It enters the state from Missouri south of Bloomfield. Between Ottumwa and Oskaloosa, the highway overlaps Iowa Highway 163. This segment is an expressway which connects Des Moines with Burlington, with freeway bypasses of Ottumwa and Eddyville. Near Malcom, U.S. 63 meets Interstate 80. Only a few miles later, it joins U.S. 6 westbound for several miles near Grinnell, then goes north again. At Toledo, it intersects U.S. 30 and at Waterloo, U.S. 63 meets U.S. 20. An expressway section opened in October 2012, completing the four-lane link between Waterloo and New Hampton. The highway enters Minnesota just north of Chester.
Minnesota
U.S. 63 enters Minnesota from Iowa south of Spring Valley. After meeting Interstate 90, U.S. 63 serves the local airport and then intersects with U.S. Route 52. In this area, U.S. 63 is an expressway, but plans are to upgrade the highway to a freeway between Stewartville and the U.S. 52 interchange. In 2014, U.S. 63 was rerouted around downtown Rochester, running concurrently with U.S. 52 to 75th St NW, jutting back to the east to the existing route. North of Rochester, the highway meets U.S. Route 61 at Lake City. From there, the two routes run concurrent to Red Wing, where U.S. 63 turns north and crosses the Mississippi River to enter Wisconsin over the Eisenhower Bridge. The Minnesota section of U.S. 63 is defined as Routes 59 and 161 in Minnesota Statutes §§ 161.114 and 161.115.
Wisconsin
U.S. 63 enters Wisconsin south of Hager City. Near Baldwin, U.S. 63 intersects Interstate 94. The highway briefly overlaps near Spooner with U.S. Route 53. At Trego, they separate and U.S. 63 runs southwest to northeast, ending near Benoit at U.S. Route 2.
History
Though US 63 as a stand-alone highway had always ended at Turrell, Arkansas before the 1999 extension, in the past it was concurrent with US 61/US 64/US 70/US 79 on into Memphis, Tennessee, over the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge. Unlike the 1999 extension, this concurrency to Memphis was generally in line with the rest of US 63. Though some maps continued to show this concurrency until 1999, Arkansas had not recognized US 63 south of Turrell for many years, since at least the 1960s.
