State Highway 99, also known as the Grand Parkway, is a beltway in the U.S. state of Texas. Its first section opened on August 31, 1994. When the route is completed, it will be the longest beltway in the U.S., the world's seventh-longest ring road, and the third (outer) loop of the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area, with Interstate 610 being the first (inner) loop and Beltway 8 being the second (middle) loop. The proposed 170-mile (270 km) loop has been divided into 11 separate segments for construction and funding purposes. In May 2019, the Texas Department of Transportation gave the Grand Parkway a secondary designation as the Mayor Bob Lanier Memorial Parkway, honoring Bob Lanier, who served as the mayor of Houston from 1992 to 1998 and who had spearheaded the creation of the Grand Parkway.

Interstate 610 (I-610) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that forms a 37.972-mile-long (61.110 km) loop around the inner city sector of the city of Houston, Texas. I-610, colloquially known as The Loop, Loop 610, The Inner Loop, or just 610, traditionally marks the border between the inner city of Houston and its surrounding areas. It is the innermost of the three Houston beltways, the other two being Beltway 8 and State Highway 99, of which various segments are under construction or planning. In Houston, the area inside I-610 is the urban core. Jeff Balke of the Houston Press wrote that the freeway "is as much a social and philosophical divide as a physical one". Mike Snyder in the Houston Chronicle wrote that, as someone from inside I-610, he historically felt "kind of special" due to being close to "the city's historical core and its major business, educational and cultural institutions".