News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville Officials said they are hopeful several road projects have moved up the priority list after meeting with T-DOT last week.
City Manager James Mills said the city focused on two projects: adding a right turn lane on South Jefferson Avenue to turn onto Interstate Drive and extending the exit ramps on 286, as well as adding a right turn lane on South Willow Avenue from the exit ramp north of Interstate Drive. Cookeville Mayor Lauren Wheaton said the city has learned that meeting with T-DOT has proven to help get projects moving.
“They’ve committed to do some other projects and they said the main reason they were was because we actually met with them, and we presented them with some things,” Wheaton said. ” And so they said one of the projects they are talking about doing is because we met with them, so that was really encouraging to hear, because of that we are getting stuff done.”
Mills said he was very pleased with how receptive T-DOT was during the meeting. Mills said the city is focusing on those two projects as TDOT would be more likely to do those projects compared to others.
“Most of what we got is like everybody else we are $50 million-$100 million to way over that,” Mills said. “Of course, we have always asked with the county to six-lane I-40. That’s hundreds of millions of dollars to do that, so we try to do projects that were doable and even those will be $10-$15 million.”
Mills said to the board that Jefferson Avenue traffic sometimes backs up to Veterans Drive especially on weekends. Mills said the city has concerns about South Willow Avenue.
“If you are familiar with that area it backs up quite a bit,” Mills said. “And if a few things happen in the next several months, it could become much worse.”
Mills said the city has a long list of road projects that they would like TDOT to complete. Wheaton said that hopefully, requesting TDOT to do smaller projects will further progress road infrastructure in Cookeville rather than waiting out on trying to widen I-40.
