Why no access from SB US 51 to TN 300?

[bugo]

There is a trumpet of sorts but is missing a ramp from SB US 51 to EB TN 300. Is through traffic just supposed to go through Memphis?

[NE2]

what

[bugo]

I guess you could make a hard left onto the ramp from NB 51 to EB 300 but why didn't they build a proper trumpet in the first place?

[codyg1985]

There is a way to turn left from SB US 51 to access TN 300: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.1979724,-90.0343381,463m/data=!3m1!1e3

As you can also see on the aerial photography, grading is in place for what was going to be the Riverfront Freeway for a directional ramp from EB TN 300 to NB US 51. I guess the design didn't have enough room to squeeze in a loop ramp, but they had room to put one in because there was nothing to the south to keep them from doing so.

[rickmastfan67]

I'm guessing because they didn't want to tear out a ramp when they started to build I-69 there.

[MikeTheActuary]

Building any more for then-proposed future needs would have involved a significant amount of additional grading and working around a railroad (which was more heavily used at the time).  Budgets are finite things.

[lordsutch]

I'm guessing because they didn't want to tear out a ramp when they started to build I-69 there.

That interchange predates any gleam in TDOT's eye of building I-69; TN 300 is the stub for what would have been the Riverside Drive freeway.

As it is, the SIU 9 EIS calls for rebuilding the whole thing anyway, since it doesn't meet current design standards.

[Tom958]

That interchange predates any gleam in TDOT's eye of building I-69; TN 300 is the stub for what would have been the Riverside Drive freeway.

I'd forgotten about that interchange when posting to this thread. So, is it accurate to say that a riverfront freeway was an active concept since before the Interstates were built and even after the I-255 link was built?