I-240

About I-240

Also known as Billy Graham Freeway.

Interstate 240 is a three-digit auxiliary route of Interstate 40, with an even prefix digit marking it as a loop or bypass. The number appears in three states. In North Carolina, Interstate 240 is an urban loop of about nine miles, known as the Billy Graham Freeway, that arcs around the north side of downtown Asheville between two points on Interstate 40, with part of it cosigned with Interstate 26.

In Tennessee, Interstate 240 forms a bypass of about nineteen miles around the southern and eastern sides of Memphis, and together with its parent Interstate 40 it completes a beltway around most of the city. In Oklahoma, Interstate 240 runs across the south side of Oklahoma City as a southern bypass connecting points on Interstate 40, overlapping a state highway for much of its length.

Each instance loops around or bypasses part of a metropolitan core, working with Interstate 40 to route through traffic around downtown areas.

History

The Memphis route opened its first sections in the early 1960s and was completed by 1971, forming the inner beltway with Interstate 40. The Asheville loop was built to carry traffic around the constrained downtown of that mountain city. The Oklahoma City route was developed as a southern bypass, and later proposals sought to extend the designation into a larger beltway around the city.

Major cities and places

Did you know

• The Asheville route is named the Billy Graham Freeway.
• The Memphis route combines with Interstate 40 to ring the city.
• The Oklahoma City route is a southern bypass of downtown.
• The even prefix digit reflects each instance's loop or bypass role.