Big projects come and go in Memphis — new buildings, new street designs, new public amenities.
For some of them, leaders eventually grab big scissors and cut oversized ribbons, smile into cameras while a crowd applauds. Some fade, like The Clipper. Remember The Clipper? It was to be a huge skyscraper hotel/office/retail project near the FedExForum. It was announced on its website in February 2019. Then news about The Clipper on that site stopped in July 2019.
Some projects, though, make us ask, “What ever happened to XYZ?” A few years ago, we ran an occasional series called “What Ever Happened To …,” in which we updated some of those projects, especially splashy bike and pedestrian projects that every Memphian could enjoy.
It turns out that after our updates then, we still need updates now. For them, we asked city and county leaders for help. They got to work over a week and a half, checking in with many different departments that then had to check in with so many contractors. In the end, they provided us with a pretty good update to satisfy our burning question: “What Ever Happened To …”
We’ll start with a couple of examples of completed projects.
I-55/Crump Boulevard Interchange
• Announced: 2015
• Status: complete
The Flyer started writing about the I-55/Crump Interchange project back when it was announced in May 2015. (Though public hearings on the idea began in 2009.) By the end of July 2015, Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) officials punted the plan for a year. Opposition rose as the plan called for the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (the Old Bridge) to be closed for nine months, redirecting all of its traffic to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge (the New Bridge).
The old cloverleaf design was built in the mid-1960s. It was meant to handle 28,500 vehicles daily, with 8 percent truck traffic, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). In 2015, traffic averaged 60,330 vehicles daily, with 26 percent trucks. By 2035, the interchange will see 84,500 vehicles per day, according to FHWA projections.
With this and more, John Schroer, the TDOT commissioner at the time, called the interchange “the worst interchange we have in the state of Tennessee.” Then-Memphis Mayor AC Wharton called it “malfunction junction.” They remained resolute to fix it.
The plan returned in 2022 and would only close the Old Bridge for two weeks. Construction began that year. And, as we know now, the new interchange opened to traffic in May.
Peabody Avenue Paving Project
• Announced: 2018
• Status: complete
We reported back in 2018 that “the city has plans to give the 1.7-mile stretch of Peabody from Bellevue to Cooper a makeover that includes fewer lanes for cars. … The street will be resurfaced and bike lanes, along with traffic-calming configurations, will be installed.”
At the time, public meetings were scheduled to present two different designs. One design would have put the bike lanes right against the curb and parking spots on the road to act as a buffer to protect cyclists. As we know now, the design that won put bike lanes out against moving traffic.
Questions and opposition to the plan slowed the process somewhat. The plan put Peabody on a “road diet,” reducing its two car lanes to one and adding the bike lane. Residents worried the plan might congest traffic and add confusion.
The paving project was completed in 2022. Aside from smoothing out the rough road deck, its bike lanes were to help connect bike lanes to Martin Luther King, which it did, and to Cooper, which did not have bike lanes at the time. It did that, too, once Cooper’s bike lanes opened in 2022.
However, all of those bike lanes were hoped to reach farther east to, one day, connect Downtown and Shelby Farms Park. To do that, though, the city had to build “the Shelby Farms Greenline bridge that will extend the Greenline to Tobey Park.”
Greenline Connector from Tillman to Cooper
• Announced: 2016
• Status: Construction could begin in 2026
This is a three-project endeavor that aims to finally connect the Shelby Farms Greenline to Midtown and beyond, with improvements to what one city planning map calls “The Last Mile.”
The first project would connect the Greenline where it now ends at Tillman to the end of Flicker Street at Union. To do this requires a second project, a new bike and pedestrian bridge over train tracks. The third project would connect that bike and pedestrian path from Flicker to Cooper Street, which then hooks up to bike lanes all the way to Downtown, Big River Crossing, and, eventually, Arkansas.
Since this idea was announced, three different people (and one orange guy twice) have occupied the White House, Kanye West came out as a Nazi (and recanted his Nazism), and Elon Musk, who publicly gave the Nazi salute twice, built a supercomputer on President’s Island.
Here’s how the first two projects were described by the City of Memphis Bikeway and Pedestrian Program’s website in October 2016: “The scope of this project is from the Greenline’s current terminus at Tillman Street to Flicker Street. Due to the necessity of crossing an active railroad, the city will construct a bicycle and pedestrian bridge in between the Union Avenue and Poplar Avenue viaducts.”
When I checked last week, the Greenline still ended at Tillman, where a grassy patch leads to a wall of dense, green brush. No signs of construction were apparent on the Flicker end, either. However, it’s likely that city officials are waiting on word about the bridge project before they start clearing that connecting path.
When we checked back in on this project in 2022, a city official said the federal funds for the project came with a lot of red tape. Nicholas Oyler, then the manager of the city’s bike and pedestrian program, said the feds required a ton of environmental review for the project. Because the bridge would go over those train tracks, it added another level of scrutiny and boxes to check. Back then, planning and design was underway thanks to some environmental clearances. Oyler predicted construction could begin as soon as 2023.
Now, however, city officials said they hope to submit plans for the bridge to TDOT by year’s end. If approved, construction could begin in the first half of 2026, they said.
Once that project is complete, the final project — the Shelby Farms Greenline Midtown Connector — would then pick up at a trailhead on Flicker and run west to Cooper.
Originally, this connector would have pushed through Tobey Park and into Liberty Park (what was called the Mid-South Fairgrounds when the plan was announced). A city website said in 2021, though, that officials were mulling other possible routes in a larger area that spans Cooper to Flicker and Avery to Central.
One rendering from the City of Memphis Bikeway and Pedestrian Program website shows a neat-o bridge over East Parkway (using the rail line there) to connect at Harbert. But it’s unclear if it’ll ever materialize.
City officials did not give any dates or solid timelines for this project.
“This project is still in the early concept and design stages, and the city is waiting for the go-ahead from TDOT to officially get started,” city officials said. “It would extend the Shelby Farms Greenline from Flicker Street to a spot in Midtown that’s still being decided.”
Cooper-Poplar Connector to Overton Park
• Announced: 2014
• Status: final design due in September, no construction timeline
Announcements for the Cooper-Poplar Connector — the project to make a bike-and-pedestrian-friendly crossing from Cooper across Poplar and into Overton Park — came as early as 2014, the same year (spoiler alert) Joffrey was killed off on Game of Thrones.
The need for the connector arose in a 2013 study that said “it is dangerous and uncomfortable for pedestrians” walking to, from, or along the perimeter of the park. It was also “difficult” for cyclists to cross North Parkway, East Parkway, or Poplar to get to the park. Bike and pedestrian improvements, the study said, “are long overdue for the most prominent park in the city park system. These improvements are also driven by the inconsistent condition of bike/pedestrian facilities in the park vicinity and strong community interest in this project.”
City officials said the project got officially underway in 2016, when Harambe memes were inescapable online. A design consultant began work in 2017, the year that sparked the #MeToo movement. And the federal environmental review of the project was completed in 2020, when everyone was talking about Tiger King.
When we checked in on this project in 2022, the city was prepping Cooper for bike lanes. Those were to connect Poplar to crosswalks, a protected bike crossing at the traffic signal, a new landing pad on the park side for bikes and pedestrians, and a new path that was to connect to the park’s trail system.
“Once this plaza and that connection goes in, it will be made more seamless and it’ll feel a lot safer getting across,” Oyler said at the time.
Here again, he said the federal funds tied to the project and a surprise environmental review from the state slowed the work. At the time, he expected to break ground on the project in mid-2023.
In 2025, officials said the final roadway design is due to TDOT in September. They didn’t expect any new right-of-way to be acquired. Also, utilities for the project and TDOT approval should only take two or three months, they said.
But it hasn’t just been the slow-turning gears of government that has held up the Cooper-Poplar Connector to Overton Park project.
“The project was effectively on hold from 2020 to 2022 due to Covid-19 impacts and staff transitions within the city of Memphis,” officials said. “During this period, the consultant’s contract expired. In 2023, with the arrival of the new [project manager], the contract was renegotiated and subsequently extended in 2024, allowing design work to resume in July 2024. Several environmental permits had expired and were resubmitted in fall 2024.”
Wolf River Greenway Final Gaps
• Announced: 2024
• Original project began: as early as 1985
• Status: Construction could be finished by 2029 or 2030
“Good things take time,” reads a quote from author and life coach Sanhita Baruah. “Great things take a little longer.” It’s a quote recently used often in Downtown Neighborhood Association’s emails on its many projects, including bringing music back to Mud Island.
Here, though, everyone knew the Wolf River Greenway would take a little longer. The thing was ambitious from the jump.
Almost as soon as the Wolf River Conservancy was formed 40 years ago, its leaders envisioned a 12-foot-wide trail across Shelby County that would roughly follow the river and eventually connect Mud Island to Germantown and Collierville. Phases of the trail have opened over the decades, and once it’s complete, it will connect 22 neighborhoods over 26 miles. The project is a partnership with the conservancy, the city, and the county.
The Flyer has kept up with the project over the years. Bianca Phillips wrote about the groundbreaking of the John F. Kennedy Park extension in 2015, 10 years ago. Abigail Morici wrote about a temporary public art exhibit along the trail in 2023.
Nearly every story we’ve written about building the project, though, has included a dollar figure. Great things, turns out, take money, too. The “final gaps” project got some big money help last year from the state and federal government.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), through the Tennessee General Assembly, granted the conservancy $10.3 million to build out 3.9 miles of the greenway that conservancy leaders call “the critical link” connecting Kennedy Park to the Shelby Farms Greenline.
Shortly after that award was announced, city officials told the conservancy it had been granted $21.8 million for the greenway project through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program.
“This RAISE grant will fund construction costs for two remaining sections of the Greenway in historically disadvantaged communities in North Memphis,” the conservancy said at the time. “The project will navigate over and under major transit infrastructure (a railroad and state highway) that are barriers to parks, neighborhoods, and everyday destinations.”
City leaders said some final designs were delayed from May 2024 through April 2025. Parts of the design had construction on or near the levee, which meant the project needed permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to make sure it was safe.
That review brought design changes for the trail. Those changes will have to be approved again. If they are, that could mean new land acquisition to build the actual trailway.
City officials said final plans will be sent to TDOT for review in September. Planning work will continue next year. Bids on the construction of the project are expected to go out in February 2027. Leaders expect construction to be finished by 2029 or 2030.
“Better Jefferson” Road Project
• Announced: 2020
• Status: Design could be finished in 2026, no construction timeline known
“A two-mile stretch of Jefferson is targeted for a $4.2 million makeover to help increase transportation options in the heart of Memphis,” the Flyer wrote in 2020. “The goal is to move Downtown, the Medical District, and Midtown together.”
The Better Jefferson project was to help cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists with resurfacing and striping, sidewalk and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) upgrades, enhanced pedestrian crossings, traffic signal modernizations, bicycle facilities, traffic calming, and landscaping elements.
Five years after it was announced, Jefferson is still the same old Jefferson. However, city officials said the design phase of the project could be wrapped up in 2026. The timing of that process will inform a construction start date and, maybe, a completion date.
Memphis Cobblestone Landing
• Announcement date: 2015
• Status: Construction could be complete by November
Those cobblestones at the river’s edge have vexed leaders here for decades.
They’re uneven, treacherous, especially for any tourist traversing them from a big tour bus to a river boat. But they’re historic, too, the oldest intact cobblestone port in the United States. If the Mississippi (or the Platte, or the Missouri) is “too thin to plow, too thick to drink,” the cobblestones are too rough to keep and too cool to throw away.
A 2008 Flyer story had a river boat pilot bitching about the stones. A 2009 story had two disparate riverfront groups agreeing that “the riverfront’s historic cobblestone landing is in dire need of repair.” In a 2014 timeline of Beale Street Landing, a 1987 Center City Commission plan called to restore the landing. A 2015 Flyer story said a $6 million plan was emerging that would keep the cobblestones’ history but make them easier to walk upon.
“That plan would create the Cobblestone Landing Accessible Trail, a sidewalk that will run along the wall below Riverside Drive,” the story said. “It will stretch from Court to Monroe with handicap-accessible ramps on both sides. The walk will feature two bump-outs for viewing and will be even with the cobblestones in the center.”
Any “new” plan for the cobblestones really began three decades ago. In the summer of 1994, the city built a foundation at the foot of Beale Street to be used for the relocation of the Tom Lee monument. For it, crews removed a large section of cobblestones, and the project was halted by the USACE for historic preservation. A number of government agencies have piled onto the cobblestone project over the years. But in all that time, the cobblestones themselves have largely remained untouched.
In 2025, city officials said, “At this point, the project is 95 percent complete. River stage permitting, work is expected to resume in September, with completion targeted for November 30, 2025.”