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.

Interstate 240 (I-240) is a 19.27-mile-long (31.01 km) auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of Tennessee that forms a bypass around the southern and eastern neighborhoods of Memphis. Combined, I-240 and its parent, I-40, form a contiguous beltway around most of Memphis. I-240 runs from I-40 in Midtown Memphis to I-40 and Sam Cooper Boulevard in East Memphis. Throughout its length, it provides access to I-55, multiple U.S. and state routes, and the Memphis International Airport. The segment between the western terminus and I-55 is a north–south route, and the segment between I-55 and the eastern terminus runs east to west. Throughout its length, I-240 is designated as the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway, the W.B. Fowler Sr. Expressway, and the Avron B. Fogelman Expressway.