Texas State Highway Loop 289


Loop 289 is a multi-lane beltway servicing Lubbock as a freeway. The highway serves as the southern end for Interstate 27 on the south side of the city. The highway passes about a mile south of Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport on the north side near the intersection with I-27.

History

Lubbock is among the smallest U.S. cities to be encircled by a beltway or loop highway. Loop 289 is a grade-separated controlled-access freeway. Built from 1960 to 1972, it is 26 miles long. When first constructed, Loop 289 passed through entirely rural areas. Today, urban sprawl extends beyond the beltway, especially in southwestern Lubbock.
Loop 289 was designated on September 20, 1955.
I-27, completed through Lubbock in 1992, serves as the city's north-south freeway. In 2004, construction began on the Marsha Sharp Freeway, the east-west freeway. Cosigned as US 62 / US 82 at its interchange with the East Leg of Loop 289, the Marsha Sharp Freeway begins northeast of Downtown Lubbock and extends to a mile west of the West Leg of Loop 289. From there, it is under construction and is to be extended west to the nearby suburb of Wolfforth.

Lane configuration

Loop 289 is a complete loop freeway with four to six mainline lanes. The freeways have frontage roads for nearly the entire route. It is one of only three complete controlled-access loops in Texas, the other two being Interstate 610 and Beltway 8, both of which encircle Houston. At certain junctions, the freeway widens using auxiliary lanes. At most interchanges with other highways, there are partial to full access ramps, that directly serve the mainline lanes and/or frontage roads.

Popular culture

The Dixie Chicks reference Loop 289 in "Lubbock or Leave It", a track from their 2006 release Taking the Long Way. The lyric reads: 'Oh, boy, rave on down Loop 289 /
That'll be the day you see me back in this fool's paradise".

Exit list

Counter-clockwise reads down and clockwise reads up.