TN and northern MS trip

[rte66man]

New shots in and around Memphis, some of I69 in northern MS and other misc at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rte66man/sets/72157633482601269/

rte66man

[bassoon1986]

Nice pictures!

A couple of things:
-I'd forgotten about the I-40/I-240 lane switch in downtown Memphis. Didn't the 240 loop used to occupy the main lanes and 40 exited itself on 40 westbound? Was that part of the reason they reconstructed?

-Briley Pkwy (TN 155) has exit numbers...cool. It's rare(ish) for freeways in the south to carry exit numbers. At least it seems that way to me. Also the opposite was true for I-69.

-Did I-40/I-55 concurrency always have a designation for Blytheville? Or was it shared with St. Louis only at the exit for 55 before these new signs were constructed? Also saw that they added Forrest City for I-40 WB at the split. Maybe to make it symmetrical (2 cities) with the I-55 sign?

[Brian556]

The quality of the pics was excellent, esp. considering that they were taken while driving.

[lordsutch]

-I'd forgotten about the I-40/I-240 lane switch in downtown Memphis. Didn't the 240 loop used to occupy the main lanes and 40 exited itself on 40 westbound? Was that part of the reason they reconstructed?

-Briley Pkwy (TN 155) has exit numbers...cool. It's rare(ish) for freeways in the south to carry exit numbers. At least it seems that way to me. Also the opposite was true for I-69.

-Did I-40/I-55 concurrency always have a designation for Blytheville? Or was it shared with St. Louis only at the exit for 55 before these new signs were constructed? Also saw that they added Forrest City for I-40 WB at the split. Maybe to make it symmetrical (2 cities) with the I-55 sign?

Yes, before the rebuild I-240 was designed as the "through" route; I-40 eastbound had a tight, one-lane flyover.  Hence the bad patch job you can see on the overhead south/westbound.  I'm sure you can pull up old topos and aerials.

TN 155 has had interchange numbers for decades.  Definitely a rare thing; TDOT only has interchange numbers on one other state-designated route, TN 840.  In the case of I-69 in MS, MDOT seems to have only installed "state route" grade signs thus far rather than modern Interstate-grade signage (much like US 78 used to look and US 45 and US 82 still look), for whatever reason.

IIRC Blytheville has been on I-55 signs a long time.

[US71]

I'm waiting for someone to drive off the WB 240 ramp on the stub that used to go to WB 40.