The City of Murfreesboro continues to move closer to a long-discussed and needed transportation project: a northern bypass loop designed to connect the Blackman area to Walter Hill and give drivers a new way across town without relying on increasingly congested main corridors.
The roadway—known in segments as Cherry Lane, Stonesbattle Parkway and Blackman Road—will create a continuous east-west route stretching from Lebanon Pike (U.S. 231) near Walter Hill westward across I-840, through Northwest Broad Street (U.S. 41), and eventually crossing I-24 before it connects with Veterans Parkway in the Blackman area.
Murfreesboro’s continued population and commercial growth has placed increasing strain on major arteries like Memorial Boulevard, Old Fort Parkway and Medical Center Parkway. This bypass could eventually support an anticipated 123,000 daily trips driven by area residents and commercial vehicles, according to a study of the proposed corridor by the civil engineering firm Pape Dawson.
Planners say they expect the bypass to provide meaningful relief to present-day traffic congestion, and allow for additional volume that’s not there today.
City leaders say the project has been decades in the making.
“This project started back in the late ’80s,” said former Assistant City Manager Sam Huddleston, who has worked on the plan for years. “We’ve adjusted and modified the plan on several occasions since that time.”
The project is being built in phases.
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Currently, Phase 1, spanning part of Cherry Lane off of Lebanon Pike, is already complete and open to traffic.
Phases 2 and 3—expected to begin construction in the coming months—carry an estimated cost of around $60 million, with the full corridor projected at roughly $150 million.
Funding comes from primarily local tax dollars, with some state support and federal highway funds, though officials note that the majority of the project will be locally funded.
Plans call for a multi-lane corridor, with four-lane sections divided with a median in higher-capacity areas and five-lane sections with a center turn lane elsewhere requiring a turn lane.
The design reflects expectations that the roadway will become a major connector between neighborhoods, commercial areas and interstate access points and a way for those needing to get from one side of Murfreesboro to the other without stopping in town to do so more efficiently.
One of the biggest unanswered pieces is whether the Stonesbattle Parkway route will ultimately include a new interchange at I-24—which would be located between the Almaville Road and I-840 exits—or whether it will simply cross the Interstate.
“At the earliest, it’ll be three years out before that interchange becomes available to traffic,” Huddleston said, referring to the potential I-24 connection.
However, that interchange question is not yet finalized. The decision will involve coordination between the City of Murfreesboro, the Tennessee Department of Transportation, and private partners involved in the I-24 Choice Lanes project. City officials have expressed support for adding the interchange to improve connectivity on Murfreesboro’s fast-growing west side.
While land for the current Cherry Lane phases has been acquired, the full bypass route is not yet completely finalized, and the city continues to work with landowners and developers as alignments are refined.
To guide that growth, Murfreesboro commissioned a small area study for the corridor, aimed at shaping land use, zoning and infrastructure decisions. Officials expect the roadway to spur additional residential and commercial development, making long-term planning critical.
Ultimately, within the next few years, the Cherry Lane–Stonesbattle Parkway project should help Murfreesboro sustain its ever-increasing population and remain a key piece of the city’s transportation network for decades.
