Bidding Opens For Phase Two Of Cookeville’s Tenth Street Project

Cookeville has acquired all the properties needed to begin the bidding process for construction on phase two of the Tenth Street expansion project.

Cookeville City Manager James Mills said the city officially acquired all land needed for construction through purchase and imminent domain. The next phase will increase lanes between Old Kentucky Road and Fisk Road.

“We’ve had, as far as I know, nothing but positive comments on the first phase of the 10th Street improvements,” Mills said. “All the residential properties on the North, we believe, were greatly enhanced by the project with the sidewalks and the landscaping. But the reviews that we’ve received have all been positive.”

The city began accepting bids on the project Tuesday. Mills said at the conclusion of the 30-day period, the best bids will be considered. They will then be submitted to Cookeville City Council for approval.

Mills said construction will hopefully begin in winter or the following spring.

“Both street improvements have been identified as priorities for the city for decades,” Mills said. “We’re finally able to get to them, we ask that people as we go through the construction of these to have patience with us and give us time to get them completed.”

Mills said the city is striving to have the project completed within 18 months, barring extenuating circumstance such as bad soil. Mills said that the projects will not be without their inconveniences to motorists while they’re ongoing.

“There’s going to be months of pain I guess for people who live around there or traverse those routes,” Mills said. “There’s going to be difficulties, and problems, and issues and we just ask for people to be patient as we go through these growing pains.”

Phase one of the project added additional lanes between Highway 111 and Old Kentucky Road. During a planning session earlier this year, Mills expressed doubt about future phases of construction noting the costs and difficulty in obtaining land in the corridor between Fisk Road and Washington Avenue.