Tennessee State Route 177
State Route 177 is a secondary state highway in Shelby County, Tennessee. The majority of the route is known as Germantown Road and Germantown Parkway.
Route description
SR 177 starts in southeast Memphis on Winchester Road near SR 385 with a speed limit of 40 MPH. From there it runs north through the city of Germantown with a speed limit of 35 until it intersects with U.S. [Route 72 in Tennessee|US 72]/SR 57 where the speed limit rises to 40. It then crosses the Wolf River where the speed limit rises to 45 and passes back into Memphis through the Cordova community. SR 177 later intersects I-40 near the Wolfchase Galleria. SR 177 crosses US 64/SR 15 in Bartlett, before terminating as a state route at U.S. [Route 70 in Tennessee|US 70]/U.S. [Route 79 in Tennessee|US 79]/SR 1. Germantown Road continues north until Old Brownsville Road near the Brunswick community.Beginning at the US 72/SR 57 intersection, SR 177 turns from a two-lane road into a six-lane highway, and continues in this form through to its north terminus, and from the Wolf River bridge until the I-40 junction, the road is six-lane and has paved outside shoulders on both sides, which only occasionally give way to a fourth lane or a right-turn lane. It also has a grassed median from the Wolf River to US 64. North of I-40 until US 64, the road has 4 lanes in each direction. North of US 64 until the route terminates, the road has 3 lanes in each direction.
History
Prior to 1990, SR 177 was two lanes throughout its length. After 1990, the route was expanded into its current form from US 72/SR 57 to the I-40 – US 64 area. In the late 1990s, it was expanded to its current form between US 64 to US 70/US 79. Germantown Parkway, as it is known locally, has seen significant commercial and residential development starting in the 1990s, including the establishment of restaurants, hotels, planned communities, and the Wolfchase Galleria. North of US 64, however, little new development has taken place besides the addition of a few residential subdivisions, a school, and a Walgreens near US 70/US 79.The speed limit between the Wolf River and I-40 was 50 miles per hour until 2014 when the city of Memphis lowered it to 45 MPH, possibly due to increasing traffic counts.