News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville city officials have identified expanding Walnut Avenue as their biggest road improvement project.
Planning Director James Mills said the proposed project would widen the roadway to five lanes from Interstate Drive to Jackson Street.
“Walnut’s become a major alternate route for north-south traffic. It’s carrying more and more traffic each year,” Mills said. “It wouldn’t necessarily be a benefit to future development, it would be a response to future development to handle the increased traffic we would anticipate to occur from new developments along Walnut.”
City Council and other city leaders discussed potential projects during a special work session Monday. The projects were identified by Cookeville’s planning department employees and Nashville-based consulting firm WSP.
Mills said a large portion of Walnut Avenue in the projected expansion area is commercially zoned.
“That would include the Fairgrounds if that ever is redeveloped, and then there’s some tracts along Walnut south of the fairgrounds zoned for commercial development,” Mills said. “That seems to be the hot spot where we’re getting a lot of proposals for development. This would be in anticipation and to help provide [better] traffic flow for that area.”
Mills said expanding Walnut Avenue north of Jackson Street into the downtown area could be challenging.
“Once you hit Spring Street, it becomes very difficult with the church and with the bank or where SAIC is located,” Mills said. “That’s going to be really difficult to acquire enough right-of-way there to do any significant widening. But going north from Jackson to Spring Street is included in the proposal and needs provided by WSP.”
The project would cost approximately $6 million to complete and would require six to with months for contractors to study before construction were to begin.
