Sparta’s Taft Church Road Work Added to Next Paving Cycle

Work on Sparta’s Taft Church Road/Highway 111 intersection is set to begin in next spring’s paving cycle.

The T-DOT project would add a turn lane going North into the Walmart parking lot. City Administrator Brad Hennessee said the city will apply for the T-DOT permit sometime next year.

“With all the other projects we had going on, we did not want to take on the additional while we had the burden of the others ongoing,” Hennessee said. “As we finish our fall work, that will allow us some time to focus on the engineering.”

Hennessee said high traffic has been an issue at the intersection. Once the turn lane is established, Hennessee said the city wants to add a second left turn arrow to manage the traffic pulling out of Taft Church Road.

“We would like to have two that way people could either turn left or go straight across to the car dealerships,” Hennessee said. “Having that turn lane will allow us to reconfigure the traffic signal and better manage the traffic pulling out of Taft Church Road onto 111 in all directions.”

Since the intersection improvement involves access to a state road, Sparta has to get permission from the state. Hennessee said the city has yet to hire an engineer to start the preliminary plans.

“We are at the end of the paving cycle for the year,” Hennessee said. “It would be pointless to have it all ready now anyway. Those permits would likely expire before pavement started next summer.”