Sam Cooper Boulevard
 |
|
| Maintained by | City of Memphis and TDOT |
|---|---|
| Length | 5.8 mi (9.3 km) |
| West end |
   US 64 / US 70 (East Parkway N) / US 79
|
| East end |
  I-40 / I-240 interchange |
Sam Cooper Boulevard is an urban freeway in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A.. The more recent western segment of the road follows a parkway design, the older eastern portion which was proposed and constructed as a segment of Interstate 40 (I-40) is built as an expressway, without at-grade intersections and traffic lights. The western terminus of Sam Cooper Boulevard is at East Parkway North. At the western termination point of the road there is a short concurrency of East Parkway North with U.S. Route 64, U.S. Route 70, and U.S. Route 79. From its western end, Sam Cooper Boulevard continues east for 5.8 miles (9.3 km) to reach its eastern terminus at the Interstate 40/Interstate 240 interchange.
The road was originally planned in the 1950s. It was proposed as a segment of I-40 that would intersect the center of Memphis and continue west to Arkansas. The proposed route would have cut through Overton Park, an old forest public park in Memphis. Following a United States Supreme Court decision in 1971 the route was revised, I-40 was routed around Memphis in the north and plans of routing an Interstate highway through the city were abandoned. Ownership of the completed segments of the highway was transferred to the City of Memphis. As a road that is owned and maintained by the City of Memphis, no route number is assigned to Sam Cooper Boulevard.
In the 1950s, Interstate 240 (I-240) was planned as a complete loop around Memphis, consisting of a southern leg and a northern leg. Interstate 40 (I-40) was proposed to be routed through the center of the City of Memphis and to continue west into Arkansas over the Hernando de Soto Bridge, which was opened in 1973 and carries the traffic on modern I-40 over the Mississippi River. The I-240 loop was planned to route traffic not destined for Memphis around the city and to improve the flow of increasing traffic. The proposed I-240 loop would connect westbound and eastbound traffic to I-40 and southbound and northbound traffic to Interstate 55 (I-55).
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