Cookeville Officials Having To Prioritize STBG Projects In Face Of Rising Costs

City of Cookeville having to make decisions on projects that utilize State Transportation Block Grant funds in the face of rising costs.

City Manager James Mills said those projects include sidewalks on Interstate Drive, turning lanes on South Willow Avenue and Jackson Street, and a Buffalo Valley area bridge replacement. He said when the city first received funding for the projects, they had enough funds to cover the match. As delays continued, so did the project price increase.

“The costs have gone up and have gone up for everybody,” Mills said.”And because they have, we now have to look at considering moving some of these monies or delaying one of these projects to finish one. And we’ll determine that based on where they are in the process. The ones that are further along, we’ll try to finish.”

Mills said Interstate Drive sidewalks are fairly far along and right-of-way acquisition for the West Jackson/South Willow Avenue is starting. He said the city will have to decide if it wants to delay the bridge project and put that funding towards the completion of the other two.

“Because we expect to continue to get STBG monies as we go forward,” Mills said.

Mills said in his mind, the priority will be the improvements to West Jackson and South Willow. He said that is because the additional turning lanes would really help what has traditionally been the busiest turning lane in the city.

Mills said TSBG dollars are pass-through money that comes from the federal highway department which allots the city a certain amount each year. He said there are different options to spend the dollars, such as for paving, but the city has generally tried to save them up for large projects.

“The unique thing about the West Jackson/South Willow projects is that most of these require a local match,” Mills said. “On that project, T-DOt has agreed to provide the local match. So we actually have less local dollars involved in that project.”