Good Meeting With TVA, No Tower Commitment

A good discussion, but no commitment to move the major electrical tower at the corner of Cookeville’s Neal Street and South Jefferson Avenue.

That’s how Cookeville City Manager James Mills described Friday’s meeting with a TVA Vice President. Mills said the structure needs to be moved away from the intersection as tractor trailers risk damaging the tower when they make the sharp turn. Mills said the city wants TVA’s help to pay for the project.

“We believe this not only will help us, the city, in terms of being able to get tractor trailers through the intersection, it will help TVA,” Mills said. “Moving the tower back will make it safer. It also, the tower is over seventy years old but their philosophy is just replace parts as needed.”

Mills said moving the tower would require it to be changed from a four-legged structure to a monopole to allow it to sit even further from the intersection. Mills said the project is estimated to cost some $700,000 in total.

“The original estimate was $900,000 so it has dropped some,” Mills said. “But still that’s a big lick for the city of Cookeville to have to take on.”

Mills said they have also reached out to a congressman and T-DOT for potential support as that intersection is scheduled to receive major improvements in the coming years.

“We’re going to go and look as many different routes for funding as we can,” Mills said. “We’d love to have TVA say, ‘Hey, you’re right. This will benefit us, we’ll cover the entire cost.’ You know, we hope so, but we’re going to pursue whatever we can.”

Mills said it would be devastating if the tower was ever damaged as it carries the major powerline for not only the local area but much of middle Tennessee.

“TVA has backups,” Mills said. “But still, you’re talking in the millions to replace something and all the power outages you’d have at least for a temporary period.”