Bike Lane Addition On Cedar Nearing Completion

A project to resurface and add striping for bike lanes on Cookeville’s Cedar Avenue is scheduled to finish up in the next few weeks.

City Manager James Mills said the project includes milling and resurfacing from Broad Street to Seventh Street. He said he is excited to connect Cookeville Regional Medical Center and Tennessee Tech with a more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly route.

“It was designed to accommodate bicycle traffic and I think that’s picked up now that we have dedicated lanes for bicycles, but I guess it just depends,” Mills said. “We think that the students are one of the largest populations for cyclists and we do have quite a few cyclists in the city.”

Mills said the project will also provide improvements to railroad crossings. Mills said he is waiting to hear from Rogers Group on an official completion date.

“I think for the most part, it’s been pretty smooth,” Mills said. “Of course, this has been, it’s about the fourth year of the project. We’ve seen increases in costs like everybody has, in particular, for materials. But for the most part, it’s gone as smooth as we would expect.”

Mills said most of the work outside of paving has been taken care of by the Cookeville Public Works Department. Mills said the department has done an excellent job. He said this has been part of a pedestrian and bicycle circulation plan that was designed to identify where bike lanes would be particularly beneficial.

“There were several cyclists involved in the development of that plan, so I think there’s a steady number of an increase in cyclists in the city,” Mills said.