News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Baxter Mayor John Martin hopeful of meeting with T-DOT officials over the next week or so about the community’s road needs.
Martin said he wants to discuss the work planned for the area around Exit 280. The state appropriated $22 million for intersection upgrades last November. Extensive surveying and street marking has already been done.
“We’re hoping that they give us a time frame of what’s going on,” Martin said. “Because I know all of our citizens are really anxious to have something to do with 280. Of course, we’re not unique, look at the city of Cookeville and every municipality in the state of Tennessee is the same way. Traffic’s unbelievable.”
Martin said Baxter needs more money in order to expand lanes under the I-40 bridge. That would mean rebuilding both of the Interstate 40 bridges.
The road to Portobello’s new plant, also a concern Martin said he wants to address.
Martin said the community has a good relationship with T-DOT, pointing to the upgrades made at the Highway 70/Highway 56 intersection over the last year. Martin said the state listened to some specific requests the city had.
“As far as the turn lanes and we did not want swing arm lights because we had problems all the time with houseboats going through and hitting the lights,” Martin said. “So they agreed to do everything that we requested and we’re really thankful for that.”
Martin said that the construction was a result of six years of overall discussion and work.
