I-55 roundabout opens to traffic, new bridge next
“Not only are we putting $1 billion in extra funding for road and bridges, but we put $85 million in recurring dollars,” Gov. Bill Lee said. The state’s current approach is a departure from the state’s past funding practice of paying as it had the money for road projects. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
The new Crump Boulevard/Interstate 55 roundabout near Downtown Memphis officially opened Tuesday, May 6.
The roundabout, a long-term road project with tentative design work dating back to 2011, separates local traffic from I-55 traffic on the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge across the Mississippi River.
The $111 million project replaces a series of narrow exit and entrance ramps on E.H. Crump Boulevard shared by cars and trucks on what is and will remain a major freight corridor.
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Interstate 55 roundabout E.H. Crump Boulevard Bill Lee Paul Young Subscriber OnlyThank you for supporting local journalism.
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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