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Feature article
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Highways 11-W, 11-E, I-181 the main roads
By Garren Shipley
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| Interstates and highways in Northeast Tennessee |
Welcome to the Tri-Cities. Now that you’re almost settled, you’d probably like to know how to get around this three-county, 300,000-person region.
Believe it or not, it’s not as hard as it looks at first glance. The Tri-Cities area is arranged roughly in the shape of an equilateral triangle, with the cities about 20 miles from each other.
Getting around requires two basic bits of information — how to get from here to there, and how to get around there when you arrive.
Fortunately, this area’s triangle shape makes most of these tasks easy.
Two legs of the triangle meet in Bristol — Highways 11-E and 11-W. The two routes diverge from the Lee Highway in Bristol at roughly the state line. Highway 11-E turns south and becomes the Bristol main artery of Volunteer Parkway before running to Johnson City.
The same route wends through several Johnson City streets before heading out of town to Jonesborough, Greeneville and later Morristown. Highway 11-W is another leg of the triangle. From Bristol, the route heads straight for Kingsport, running through northern Sullivan County like a line of latitude.
On Highway 11-W, called Euclid Avenue in parts of Bristol, a driver can take in some of the other major commerce centers in town.
Follow Highway 11-W into Hawkins County and you’ll find Mount Carmel, Church Hill and Rogersville on the way to Knoxville. Drivers trying to get from Johnson City to Kingsport have two major choices — Interstate 181/ U.S. 23 or Highway 36, which in Kingsport is known as Fort Henry Drive.
Both highways run pretty much in a straight line between the two towns and both intersect Interstate 81, but Interstate 181 is the limited access, high-speed choice of the two.
But a driver’s preference may change during the odd period of road construction.
Tennessee Department of Transportation crews have been working off and on for the past few years to get the I-181 ready to become Interstate 26 — making rush hour commutes a headache from time to time.
Occasional winter snow may also send drivers from the interstate to the low road.
Locals will tell almost any visitor that Highway 36 sees a snow plow long before Interstate 181 — and there are places to get in out of the cold if you get stuck.
Follow Interstate 181 all the way through Johnson City, and a driver will find easy access to Elizabethton, Erwin and eventually Asheville, N.C.
North Carolina highway crews will put the finishing touches on the last of the interstate-quality sections of the route by the end of July.
Heading north, I-181 will take you to the state line in north Kingsport, where it joins with Highway 36 and runs north into Scott County, Va., as U.S. 23 headed for the coalfields of Kentucky.
The only other major highway in the area is Interstate 81, which bisects Bristol on its way north into Virginia and serves as a dividing line between Kingsport and Johnson City.
From Bristol, drivers head north toward Roanoke and find much of Southwest Virginia, or south toward Knoxville, where one will find indirect access to the cities in Washington, Greene and Hamblen counties.
Now that you know how to get there, how do you get around?
In all three of the Tri-Cities, drivers new to the area will find these main arteries will run through much of the city in which they’ve just arrived.
But there are a few roads that you need to know about to get around successfully that don’t go from city to city.
In Kingsport, this list includes the John B. Dennis Bypass and Center Street.
John B. Dennis, a.k.a. Highway 93, connects Interstate 181 near MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center with Highway 11-W/Stone Drive and points north in Kingsport. It also is the most convenient link from the interstate to Eastman Chemical Co. and Kingsport’s industrial heart.
Drivers should also be aware of the Center Street/Fort Henry Drive corridor of Highway 36. This route runs along these two roads and will take you from I-81 or Johnson City to the Fort Henry Mall all the way to downtown.
In Bristol, both branches of Highway 11 can get you where you need to go as far as commercial centers, but if you’re looking for the heart of the twin cities, head for State Street. Much of State Street serves as the line between Tennessee and Virginia.
This unique thoroughfare connects to both 11-E and 11-W, but splits the state line closest to 11-E, or Volunteer Parkway.
Johnson City is the largest of all three cities, but is well served by Highway 11-E. This route runs through three of the city’s major roads, West Market Street, John Exum Parkway and North Roan Street, where you’ll find The Mall at Johnson City.
Getting to East Tennessee State University or The Centre at Millennium Park is easy from I-181, Highway 36 or 11-E — just take State of Franklin Road. This four-lane road runs all around Johnson City taking in almost all other major commercial centers not encompassed by 11-E and Highway 36.
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