State Approves Funding for Willow, 12th Street Sidewalks

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has approved funding for a Cookeville sidewalk project adding walkways along North Willow Avenue and West 12th Street.

City Planning Director James Mills said studies related to the project revealed many Tennessee Tech students walked the to and from campus without a sidewalk.

“One of the things that was noted in the application and also that TDOT noted was the amount of students that walked through there,” Mills said. “You can actually see, if you’ve been up there, paths that students have worn in the grass along the side of the road there. Also, we had in our police department records, there’s been some pedestrians hit in the last five years. For safety reasons, it’s very needed.”

Cookeville City Council approved a motion last September to apply for the grant funding, which requires a five-percent match from the city.

Mills said that match will cost the city just under $50,000, while the total project estimate comes in around $950,000.

Despite the approval, Mills said it may be a few years before crews begin construction on the new sidewalks, citing a previous grant received for sidewalk improvements along East Spring Street.

“TDOT has some specific requirements you have to meet and processes you have to go through,” Mills said. “We were approved for one of these grants in 2015 for East Spring Street. That project – we hope – will start this year. Hopefully it’s no more than four or five years, but it is a long time before it actually starts to happen.”

The project will add sidewalk stretching from the North Willow and West 12th intersection northward to Jere Whitson Road, and east from the intersection along West 12th to Virginia Avenue.

The city previously discussed expanding the project with their own labor from Virginia Avenue to North Dixie Avenue, which will cost approximately $14,000.