I-69 in TN

[abqtraveler]

IH 69 will NOT Be completed in Tennessee and Arkansas in the next 35 years, Bank On It! Federal money will be allocated to addressing the Traffic issues in NashVegas and Chattlanta, Respectively. Driving on 24 between NashVegas and Chattlanta, is hell on weekends!

I think your point that Tennessee spends most of its money east of the Tennessee River may have gotten lost in your symbiosis of cities in Eastern Tennessee and Northern Georgia. These boards used to have the Memphis region coupled with the MidSouth. This thread from last year touches on this a lot.

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=99.msg2938727#msg2938727

I agree with your summation that completion is unlikely in my lifetime in Arkansas particularly and even in Tennessee.

Unless there's a major political shift in Tennessee that focuses attention on the western part of the state (which I don't see happening anytime soon), they will get I-69 built to I-155 in Dyersburg and call it good.

[Anthony_JK]

Don't think so. Memphis would raise hell, and you'd have I-69 through traffic wanting to access Memphis either using the I-40 bridge to I-55 in West Memphis, using city streets, or US 51 south to I-240. Can't just bypass a major city like that, even one as dysfunctional as Memphis is right now.

[I-55]

Don't think so. Memphis would raise hell, and you'd have I-69 through traffic wanting to access Memphis either using the I-40 bridge to I-55 in West Memphis, using city streets, or US 51 south to I-240. Can't just bypass a major city like that, even one as dysfunctional as Memphis is right now.

Memphis might raise hell but Nashville ignores most of the hell Memphis brings now. As significant as completing I-69 to Memphis may be, their problem is bridges. TDOT already plans to work on one of them. Combine that with the Crump interchange and Lamar Ave improvements, Memphis is getting about as much attention as it will get, especially with the problems that plague the other 3 big metros in the state. Shelby Co. is getting 8 projects in TDOT's 10-year plan, compared to about 20 in the Nashville area, 7 in Chattanooga, and 10 in Knoxville. That's as good as Memphis is going to get unless the feds step in with at least 90 percent funding.