These routes overlap for 0.13 miles (0.21 km) until Highway 242 turns north along 4th Street, where a concurrency with Crowley's Ridge Parkway (CRP).

US 49B passes the Faust House, Myers House, Central High School and the Helena Country Club before meeting the former corporate limit of West Helena prior to their 2005 merger.

The route winds and splits into two divided one-way streets begin as it enters the area formerly designated as Helena.

Short House, and Estevan Hall before becoming Biscoe Street and terminating at the parent route.

[1] Major intersections The entire route is in Helena-West Helena, Phillips County.

This roadway was originally part of AR 1, designated in 1926 in Arkansas's initial state highway system.

The route continues south as 3rd Street, passing near the historic National Bank of Commerce Building, the Paragould War Memorial, the Paragould Downtown Commercial Historic District, and the Gulf Oil Company Service Station to terminate at US 412.

Following the designation of Highway 1 as US 49 between Jonesboro and Piggott, AR 1B in Paragould was redesignated as US 49B on August 22, 1979.

US 49Y terminates at US Highway 412 Business (US 412B) and the Crowley's Ridge Parkway (Kingshighway) just south of Kirk Field.

ArDOT estimates the traffic level for a segment of roadway for any average day of the year in these surveys.

[14] It was truncated at the end of the one-way pair in downtown Jonesboro near Cate Street on April 25, 1996.