The Interstate Highways in Tennessee are those parts of the

Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

owned and maintained by the

Tennessee Department of Transportation The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is a multimodal agency with statewide responsibilities in roadways, aviation, public transit, waterways, and railroads. The mission of TDOT is to provide a safe and reliable transportation syste ...

(TDOT) the US state of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

. Currently the state has of Interstate Highways. Tennessee's Interstate Highways are designated as the " Senator Albert Gore Sr. Memorial Interstate System" after a U.S. Senator from Tennessee who sponsored the

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, also known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, was enacted on June 29, 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law. With an original authorization of $25 billion for ...

that created the Interstate Highway System. __TOC__

Description

Tennessee contains a total of of interstate highways, all of which are maintained by the

(TDOT). Tennessee's interstate system is designated as the " Senator Albert Gore Sr. Memorial Interstate System." Albert Gore Sr. was a three-term

United States Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

from Tennessee who co-sponsored the

, also known as the Interstate Highway Act. The longest interstate highway in Tennessee is

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

, at a length of . The segment of I-40 in Tennessee is also the longest segment of all of the states the route traverses. The shortest mainline interstate highway in Tennessee is

I-55 Interstate 55 (I-55) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates that end in a five, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. The h ...

, at a length of in Memphis. The longest auxiliary interstate highway in Tennessee is I-840, an outer southern bypass around Nashville, at a length of . The shortest interstate highway in Tennessee is the I-124 in Chattanooga, which is unsigned; the shortest signed interstate highway is I-275 in Knoxville, at long.

History

Tennessee was allocated approximately of interstate highways by the

. I-24 was originally planned to run between Nashville and Chattanooga; it was approved to be extended to I-57 in southern Illinois in August 1964. The first section of interstate highway in Tennessee was a short freeway in Knoxville, completed in two segments in 1952 and 1955, that was integrated into the interstate highway system, becoming part of I-40 and I-75. The first initial segment of Interstate highway in Tennessee was a short portion of I-65 near the Alabama state line that opened on November 15, 1958. The first section of interstate to be complete between two major cities in Tennessee was I-40 between Memphis and Nashville, the last segment between these cities of which was dedicated on July 24, 1966. Most of I-40 between Nashville and Knoxville was also complete by this time. On December 20, 1974, the final segments of I-40, I-75, and I-81 in Tennessee opened to traffic, opening the final segments of mainline interstate highway initially allocated to Tennessee in 1956. At this time, however, work was not fully complete on these sections of I-81 and I-40; this occurred on August 27, 1975 and September 12, 1975, respectively. The last segment of I-24 in Tennessee, located west of Nashville, opened on January 7, 1978. The last segment of interstate highway in Tennessee to be completed that was planned by the Interstate Highway Act was on I-440 in Nashville, which opened on April 3, 1987. Due to citizen opposition, a short segment of I-40 in Memphis planned to pass through the city's

Overton Park :''Overton Park may also refer to the U.S. Supreme Court case, Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe'' Overton Park is a large, public park in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee. The park grounds contain the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis Z ...

was never built. Opposition began after the routing was proposed in the 1950s, and citizens waged a multi-year legal battle that culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court case '' Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe'' in 1971. After this case, TDOT continued to explore options to construct this section until 1981, when it was abandoned, and a nearby section of I-240 was redesignated as part of I-40. Since the completion of Tennessee's original interstate system, additional segments of highway in the state have been added to the system. An extension of

I-26 I26 may refer to: * Interstate 26, a road in the United States of America * {{Letter-NumberCombDisambig ...

into Tennessee was approved by AASHTO in 1988, and the last section of this route was completed in August 2003. I-140 is a designation that was applied to a section of the Pellissippi Parkway in Knox and Blount counties that was constructed in the 1990s. I-840 was first proposed by the

state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

in 1986 and constructed between 1991 and 2012; it officially became an interstate highway on August 12, 2016. A segment of SR 385 in the Memphis area became I-269 in 2018. An extension of

I-69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at ...

into Tennessee was proposed in the 1990s. In 2005, I-3 was also proposed into Tennessee as a Third Infantry Division Highway.

Description

History

Primary Interstates

Auxiliary Interstates

See also

References

External links