All photos are northbound (US 70 WB).


Old TN 53 follows Pelham Rd. south of Woodbury.


TN 53 briefly joins US 70S. What's up with those arrows?


Breaking free again, passing Gassaway (hahaha) to Sycamore Creek.


TN 53/US 70 are 5 lanes southeast of TN 96 but narrow back to 2 lanes afterwards. The pavement stays 5 lanes wide for just a smidge longer than that.


Up to where TN 53 leaves US 70. That is not the right spec for a TN shield. It's too round. Compare it to the next photo.


Not that this TN 53 shield isn't flawed, but at least it has the dimensions all correct. The state shape is nowhere near accurate and I've now seen two fonts that both seem wrong. But that's not the biggest flaw.


The next assembly reveals what else is wrong: TN 53 goes from primary to secondary when it joins TN 141. (I suppose the arrow under 141 in the previous photo is also wrong, but I wasn't looking over there.) It becomes primary again upon leaving, but TN classifies road segments instead of routes, so you can never multiplex a primary and secondary route. This holds true even for US highways, which can be secondary too.

Onto US 70 alone

To I-40
Onto TN 141
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