Cookeville To Consider Awarding Bids For East 10th Street Widening

Cookeville City Council will consider awarding bids for the widening of East 10th Street Thursday night.

City Manager James Mills said that the price tag for phase one came in at $1.2 million, an increase of some $600,000.

“The budget was assumed that we would do the work on this project,” Mills said. “That (Public Works Director Greg Brown) Greg’s guys would do the construction and of course that’s not going to be possible timing-wise. This was all linked to the shopping center being able to open and Greg’s men will not have the time to do this.”

Brown said that the work would extend from Wilson Drive to Chocolate Drive. He said that they hope to get everything squared away this fall and have the project completed by next spring.

Brown said that the total cost of the project could end up being some $2.3 million including labor and other costs. He said that the need for the project came about as part of requirements from the Food City construction project.

“We asked them to do a traffic study and one of the things they required was turning lanes into the facility, a traffic signal,” Brown said. “So we worked out a deal, where we cost-share the widening of the road where they did some of the work and we did some of the work. ”

Mills said that the price will require a budget amendment that would take money from the transportation department funds. He said that with some $1.8 million in the fund balance, the city can afford the project.

City Council will vote on awarding the bid at its meeting Thursday night.