The Pellissippi Parkway is a highway in Knox and Blount counties in Tennessee. It extends from State Route 62 (Oak Ridge Highway) at Solway in Knox County to a terminus east of U.S. Route 129 (Alcoa Highway) in Blount County. The central portion of the Pellissippi Parkway is included in the Interstate Highway system and is designated I-140, while portions at either end (a 5.9-mile (9.5 km) long section in Knox County and a short section in Blount County) are designated Tennessee State Route 162.
Pellissippi (also spelled Pelisipi on early maps) is said to mean "winding waters" in the Cherokee language, and is said to have been the Cherokees' name for the Clinch River.[1] (These claims are problematic; see Talk:Pellissippi Parkway).
When first built, the Pellissippi Parkway was a four-lane divided highway in Knox County, extending from State Route 162 at Solway to an interchange with I-40/I-75 in western Knox County. The portion of Pellissippi Parkway from I-40/I-75 in Knox County and Tennessee State Route 33 in Blount County was constructed in four sections beginning in 1987. The first section, which crosses the Tennessee River to connect Northshore Drive in Knox County with US 129 in Blount County, was completed in 1992, providing more efficient access to the McGhee Tyson Airport from Oak Ridge and Farragut. The Mabry Hood House, an antebellum home located on the south side of Kingston Pike, was demolished in the project to extend the Pellissippi Parkway south of I-40/I-75. The next section of the project, which opened in 1997, installed a new interchange with I-40/I-75 and provided a limited-access connection from that interchange to the Northshore Drive interchange. In 2003 a third section was opened in Blount County, extending from US 129 to Cusick Road opened in 2003, and the most recent section, from Cusick Road to Tennessee State Route 33, opened in late 2005.[2] Plans call for extending the highway eastward to U.S. Route 321 in Blount County.[3]