I-269's completion marked with ribbon cutting in DeSoto County, opening its final stretch

The completion of Interstate 269’s final stretch in DeSoto County will bring with it economic development, more efficient freight movement and safer travels, Mississippi officials said during a ribbon-cutting event Friday marking the opening of the corridor.

The corridor, which connects Interstate 55 to Interstate 40, is a half-loop stretching 60 miles along the outside of Memphis from the Hernando area to Millington.

At the interstate’s Getwell Road interchange, officials celebrated the finish of the 9-mile section in DeSoto County that sits between Interstate 55 and Mississippi 305, bringing the $640 million project to a close.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation expects the bypass to not only relieve traffic congestion on I-55, but to also serve as a connector with Interstate 22 and U.S. Highways 61 and 72. Twenty-six miles of the corridor are in Mississippi.

The development of I-269 can be traced back to more than 20 years ago. The National Highway System Act of 1995 identified the route as part of the I-69 High Priority Corridor, according to the Mississippi DOT.

The project’s completion signifies how far DeSoto County has come since that time, said U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

“Those of you that remember it know there was nothing between Olive Branch and Interstate 55 but four-way stop signs,” he said. “There wasn’t a traffic light in the whole system, and look how far we’ve come, with all those highways there and with this beautiful interstate highway we formed in 1995.”

I-269 construction began in 2011. Workers finished the section from Mississippi 302 to the Tennessee state line in 2015, before completing the section from Mississippi 302 to Mississippi 305 in 2017.

Wicker and other speakers touted I-269’s ability to spur economic development by easing access to developable land, supporting area industries and reducing commute times.

Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves said the project will open markets to farmers that weren’t as easily accessible before and provide further incentive for manufacturers to develop in northeast Mississippi — economic growth he said is a priority for the state.

“But the fact of the matter is, if you can’t get workers to and from their jobs, and you can’t get the products that are being produced to and from market, then there is no job creation, and there is no economic development,” he said.

I-269 “is a major project” from a federal highways standpoint, as are all projects with a $500 million-plus price tag, said Don Davis, Mississippi division administrator for the Federal Highway Administration. Original estimates penned the project as costing $668 million, meaning the $640 million finish came in under budget, he said.

I-269 has been “built to the highest interstate standards,” including usage of top-down construction techniques intended to minimize environmental impacts, Davis said.

Workers built the road with open-graded friction course pavements, Davis said, meaning it holds up better during wet and rainy conditions.

“It really minimizes wet weather accidents,” he said. “It’s a great feature just to have being put statewide on interstate systems. It’s a great thing that impacts people's decisions and keeps safety the top priority on this.”

After the ceremony, the Mississippi Department of Transportation fully opened I-269 to traffic.

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