News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The City of Cookeville will begin construction on the Stevens Street Improvement Project Monday.
Cookeville Public Works Director Mary Beth Elrod said the project will start with work from Willow Avenue to South Franklin Avenue. Elrod said traffic will be impacted for the first two to three months.
“They will daily have this section shut down from 7am to about 4pm every day,” Elrod said. “It will open back up at night and then over the weekends. We ask that only resident traffic would be allowed through or emergency traffic and that everyone else needs to seek an alternate route.”
Elrod said the Stevens Street Project will include widening driving lanes, and adding sidewalks on both sides of the road along with curb and gutters. Elrod said the city will also be moving utility lines behind the sidewalk so the road would not have to be dug up to access the lines.
Elrod said the project has a one-year contract and she expects the project to be completed in March of 2026. Elrod said the city could extend the deadline for the project should the contractor need the extension.
“We do have contingencies for bad weather or some delays,” Elrod said. “If there is some kind of design delay, we do take into account any delays with the contractor, so we would reconsider it and look at it and see if it was just no fault of the contractor or if it was just poor planning of the contractor.”
Elrod said the project will be completed in portions. Elrod said though Rogers Group will only be working on certain sections, there will be utility work on the remainder of the street in the meantime.
“We will still have utility companies working on the entire portion of the roadway to get those lines down,” Elrod said. “So then that contractor can move on to the next portion. So Rogers group will be actively in that first section from Willow to South Franklin while the electric department will be working on the remaining section from South Franklin to Hughes Street.”
Elrod said the city held a pre-construction meeting on Thursday, and the meeting went well.
