The Airport Parkway is a proposed major highway development project in the Jackson, Mississippi, metropolitan area that will connect Interstate 55 (I-55) in downtown Jackson to the Jackson-Evers International Airport. [1] [2] Approved in 2008, it was originally projected to be completed in 2012, but no construction has commenced as of 2023. A request to fund the rest of the planning for the route was made in 2023.
The parkway will begin at Interstate 55 (I-55) at the High Street exit in downtown Jackson. It will then travel eastward for 12-mile (19 km), crossing the Pearl River [2] and passing through the north side of Pearl before diverging at the proposed West Rankin Parkway at the Jackson-Evers International Airport in Flowood. The northern segment will terminate at Mississippi Highway 25 (MS 25; Lakeland Drive) north of the airport while the southern segment will terminate at MS 475 (Airport Road) south of the airport. [1] The entire road is planned to be operated as a toll road. [1]
The Airport Parkway Commission that was formed in 1995 to help advance the project consists of the mayors of Pearl, Flowood, and Jackson, the three cities through which the Airport Parkway would run. [2] The U.S. Congress allocated $35 million for the project. [3] The environmental impact statement was completed in 1999. [2] Right-of-way acquisition for the portion of the project in Rankin County (about 40% of the total right-of-way requirement) was completed at a cost of $15 million. In December 2007, the total cost to complete the project was estimated at about $400 million, [3] but construction has yet to begin.
In 2023, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker requested $13.12 million for the 2024 fiscal year to fund the remaining right-of-way acquisition, design, and update the environmental information documents for the Airport Parkway Corridor. A timeline for this has not been established. [4]
Jackson is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Along with Raymond, Jackson is one of two county seats for Hinds County. The city had a population of 153,701 at the 2020 census, a significant decline from 173,514, or 11.42%, since the 2010 census, representing the largest decline in population during the decade of any major U.S. city. Jackson is the anchor for the Jackson metropolitan statistical area, the largest metropolitan area located entirely in the state and the tenth-largest urban area in the Deep South. With a 2020 population of nearly 600,000, metropolitan Jackson is home to over one-fifth of Mississippi's population. The city sits on the Pearl River and is located in the greater Jackson Prairie region of Mississippi. Jackson is the only city in Mississippi with a population exceeding 100,000 people.
Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at 355.8 miles (572.6 km). The remaining separated segments are variously completed and posted or not posted sections of an extension southwest to the Mexican border in Texas. Of this extension—nicknamed the NAFTA Superhighway because it would help trade with Canada and Mexico spurred by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—seven pieces in Laredo, Texas; Pharr, Texas; Brownsville, Texas; Corpus Christi, Texas; Houston, Texas; northwestern Mississippi; and Memphis, Tennessee, have been built or upgraded and signposted as I-69. Indiana is currently working on a fifth segment that will extend I-69 through the entire state while a sixth segment of I-69 through Kentucky utilizing that state's existing parkway system and a section of I-24 was established by federal legislation in 2008 with several more parkway segments being upgraded since then. This brings the total length to approximately 880 miles (1,420 km).
Rankin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The western border of the county is formed by the Pearl River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 157,031, making it the fourth-most populous county in Mississippi. The county seat is Brandon. The county is named in honor of Christopher Rankin, a Mississippi Congressman who served from 1819 to 1826.
Pearl is a city located in Rankin County, Mississippi, United States, on the east side of the Pearl River across from the state capital Jackson. The population was 27,115 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area.
U.S. Route 45 is a major north-south United States highway and a border-to-border route, from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico. A sign at the highway's northern terminus notes the total distance as 1,297 miles (2,087 km).
Interstate 220 (I-220) in Mississippi is a loop around Jackson that provides an Interstate connection for I-55 and I-20. The northern terminus for the route is in the suburb of Ridgeland, at I-55 exit 104. The highway was Mississippi's first auxiliary Interstate, complete by 1981.
Interstate 22 (I-22) is a 202.22-mile-long (325.44 km) Interstate Highway in the US states of Mississippi and Alabama, connecting I-269 near Byhalia, Mississippi, to I-65 near Birmingham, Alabama. I-22 is also Corridor X of the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS). Designated in 2012, I-22 follows the route of older U.S. Route 78 (US 78) and is concurrent with the route for all but its eastern most 11 miles (18 km). The freeway mainly spans rural areas and passes numerous small towns along its route, including Fulton, Tupelo, New Albany, and Holly Springs in Mississippi and Jasper, Winfield, and Hamilton in Alabama.
Mississippi Highway 43 is a state highway in Mississippi that generally runs north–south in three segments: the first from US 90 near Bay St. Louis to MS 13 south of Columbia, resuming at MS 13 in southern Jefferson Davis County to end near Mendenhall, and finally starting again at MS 18 near Puckett to end at Attala Road 3122 in northern Attala County. It traverses approximately 235 miles (378 km), serving Hancock, Pearl River, Marion, Jefferson Davis, Lawrence, Simpson, Rankin, Madison, Leake, and Attala counties.
Interstate 269 (I-269) is a beltway around the city of Memphis, Tennessee, and its adjacent suburban areas in southwestern Tennessee and northern Mississippi, completed in October 2018. I-269 was planned and built to serve as an outer bypass for the Memphis metropolitan area, funneling through traffic around the metro area while also functioning as a bypass of future I-69, which will run directly through the center of the metro area. I-269 currently connects to its parent route, I-69, at an interchange in Hernando, Mississippi, and will do so again in Millington, Tennessee, in the future.
Mississippi Highway 18 is a state highway stretching across central Mississippi, from just a couple miles inland of the Mississippi River, through the state capital of Jackson, to the Alabama state line. It runs from east to west for 177.654 miles (285.906 km), serving 7 counties: Claiborne, Copiah, Hinds, Rankin, Smith, Jasper, and Clarke.
State Route 297 is a short state highway that is just over 1 mile (1.6 km) long highway serving as the fourth Black Warrior River crossing in Tuscaloosa. It acts as a connector between Jack Warner Parkway and Rice Mine Road.
Jackson, MS Metropolitan Statistical Area is a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the central region of the U.S. state of Mississippi that covers seven counties: Copiah, Hinds, Holmes, Madison, Rankin, Simpson, and Yazoo. As of the 2010 census, the Jackson MSA had a population of 586,320. According to 2019 estimates, the population has slightly increased to 594,806. Jackson is the principal city of the MSA.
Interstate 55 (I-55) is part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from LaPlace, Louisiana, to Chicago, Illinois. In the state of Tennessee, the Interstate is located entirely within the state's second-largest city of Memphis, running 12.28 miles (19.76 km) from the Mississippi state line in the Whitehaven neighborhood to the Arkansas border across the Mississippi River. Of the six states that the Interstate passes through, the segment in Tennessee is the shortest, as well as the shortest mainline Interstate segment in Tennessee. I-55 serves a number of neighborhoods and industrial areas in the southwestern portion of Memphis, and also provides access to the Memphis International Airport, the second-busiest cargo airport in the world.
The proposed Interstate 69 (I-69) extension from Indianapolis southwest to Texas currently has a short piece completed in the US state of Mississippi, south of Memphis, Tennessee. The south end is an at-grade intersection with the former route of Mississippi Highway 304 (MS 304) near Tunica Resorts, where MS 713 continues west to U.S. Highway 61 (US 61), and the route continues north to the Mississippi state line. Much of the route overlaps MS 304, which intersects US 61 farther north than MS 713. MS 304 continues east from I-55, connecting to State Route 385 (SR 385) in Tennessee, forming part of the I-269 Memphis outer beltway.
Interstate 69 (I-69) is a proposed Interstate Highway that will pass through the western part of the US state of Tennessee, serving the cities of Union City, Dyersburg, and Memphis. Currently, a 21-mile (34 km) section of already-existing freeway in Memphis has been approved for the I-69 designation while another segment near Union City opened on February 21, 2024, under the temporary designation of Tennessee State Route 690. However, state officials have stated that they will not commit to finishing the interstate in their state until they receive more federal funding.
Interstate 69 (I-69) in the US state of Kentucky is a 148.1-mile-long (238.3 km) freeway running from Fulton to Henderson. The route makes use of the Purchase Parkway and existing portions of I-24, the Western Kentucky Parkway, and the Pennyrile Parkway. Eventually, I-69 will leave the former Pennyrile Parkway just south of the Audubon Parkway interchange or remain on its current alignment and travel through Henderson on U.S. Route 41 (US 41) north into Indiana. The proposed route for the remainder of I-69 in Kentucky travels about 10 miles (16 km) before exiting on a bridge across the Ohio River to Indiana. As of April 2024, it is in early stages of development.
Mississippi Highway 468 runs from Mississippi Highway 475 in Flowood, Mississippi where it is known as Flowood Drive to MS 469 in Brandon, Mississippi. It is known as Pearson Road in Pearl, Mississippi.
Mississippi Highway 475 is a highway in central Mississippi. Its southern terminus is at MS 468. It then travels north to Jackson–Evers International Airport, and ends at MS 25 just north of it.
Nissan Parkway is a short divided highway in central Mississippi. The road starts at Mississippi Highway 22. It travels east to an interchange with Interstate 55 (I-55) and intersects a road leading to a Nissan assembly plant. The parkway then continues eastward to its eastern terminus at U.S. Route 51 and MS 16. Nissan Parkway was constructed in 2002 from MS 22 to I-55, after being proposed in one year before. The road was extended to its current eastern terminus by 2003.
Mississippi Highway 477 is a highway in Central Mississippi. The southern terminus is at MS 468 in Flowood. The northern terminus is at MS 25 in Flowood.