Interstate 269 is a beltway around the city of Memphis, Tennessee and its adjacent suburban areas in southwestern Tennessee and northern Mississippi, completed in October 2018. I-269 was planned and built to serve as an outer bypass for the Memphis metropolitan area, funneling through traffic around the metro area while also functioning as a bypass of future Interstate 69, which will run directly through the center of the metro area. I-269 currently connects to its parent route, I-69, at an interchange in Hernando, Mississippi, and will do so again in Millington, Tennessee, in the future.
Route description
I-269 begins at an interchange with Interstate 69 near Hernando, Mississippi. The highway travels eastward across rural areas to the town of Byhalia, Mississippi,, where it has an interchange with I-22/US 78. Here, the highway continues northeastward, slowly veering north towards the Tennessee state line. Entering Tennessee, I-269 has an interchange with US 72 and the southern segment of TN 385 in Collierville. The route then proceeds north along former TN 385 to an interchange with I-40 and the northern segment of TN 385 in Arlington.
History
The Tennessee Department of Transportation's plans called for the two sections to be connected in phases. Plans had the portion extending south from an incomplete interchange with SR 385 south to the Mississippi state line to completed in October 2015 to coincide with completion of the section in Mississippi from the Tennessee state line to Mississippi Highway 302. On January 29, 2007, the Federal Highway Administration issued a record of decision giving final federal approval for I-269, paving the way for the two states to design and construct the remaining section between Hernando and Collierville. The first section of what is now I-269, the Winfield Dunn Parkway, from I-40 to US 64 opened on September 4, 2007, signed as SR 385. The segment between US 64 and to SR 193 opened on June 15, 2009, and the segment between SR 193 and SR 57 opened on November 22, 2013. The last section of the Bill Morris Parkway, most of which remains signed as SR 385, was opened between US 72 and SR 57 on August 23, 2007. On October 18, 2007, the Mississippi Department of Transportation announced that a bond was successfully issued through the state's Highway Enhancements Through Local Partnerships Program for $83 million to cover planning and right-of-way acquisition costs for Mississippi's portion of the route. Mississippi began its part of I-269 construction on June 23, 2011, with the section from the state line to I-55 totaling construction costs of $640 million as of 2014. On October 23, 2015, the first signed segment of I-269 opened between the eastern terminus of SR 385 in Collierville and MS 302. On December 5, 2017, the second segment opened between MS 302 and MS 305, including the I-22 interchange. In 2018 TDOT redesignated a portion of SR 385 between Collierville and I-40 in Arlington as I-269. The segment of I-269 from the I-55/I-69 interchange in Hernando to MS 305 at Lewisburg, Mississippi, was completed on October 26, 2018, completing the connection between Interstate 40 in Tennessee and Interstate 55 in Mississippi. The construction costs of the Tennessee portion of SR 385 from the 1980s until completion in 2013 was over $500 million. Both states' combined investments were over $1.2 billion for the I-269 project including construction and rights of way expense listed above.
