10th Street Development Opens Door to Widening Road

Approval for developing the Old Kentucky Road Shopping Center sets the stage for more improvements on 10th Street.

For instance, widening 10th Street from Highway 111 to Fisk Road to minimize the impact on the area. Cookeville City Manager James Mills said the price tag will be steep.

“The most difficult part will be the acquisition of the right away that will be needed to complete widening of the street, that will be impactful on all the property owners through there and will be an expensive component of any improvements we do,” Mills said.

The developers of the new shopping center, Titan Development, will foot part of the bill to widen 10th as well as to move utilities in the area.

“One of the requirements was that the developer participate in the widening the section of 10th Street between Old Kentucky Road and 111, in fact their participation’s about $600,000,” Mills said.

Many citizens want to see power lines along 10th Street placed underground. Mills said it’s currently not cost conducive to bury some of the lines.

“We had a short segment where those concrete large poles are, it’s well over $1,000,000 just that short segment, so it doesn’t really make make financial sense to do that,” Mills said.

Tuesday afternoon, the city received requests for qualifications proposals from engineering firms. Mills said this will help the city get ready to move forward with 10th Street improvements.

“We want to look at a design so we’re ready if the project for commercial development on the corner of Old Kentucky and 10th occurs, we’d like to do them in conjunction so we’re going ahead and having the engineering done,” Mills said.