News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Part of the Highway 56 improvement project from McMinnville to DeKalb County should begin next year.
TDOT Civil Engineer Robert Rodgers said bids for two of the three phases of the project should be awarded in December of this year.
“I would say that people in the area would actually see heavy duty construction road work start when the spring weather hits in 2019,” Rodgers said.
One of the projects involves building two 12 foot lanes as part of a four lane project from the DeKalb and Warren County line up to State Route 288. Rodgers said a left turn lane will also be included at all county roads.
“We will be building that road so it’s half of the future road,” Rodgers said. “When we come back later on all we will need to do is add the other lanes to it.”
The other project goes from State Route 288 up to East Bryant Street in Smithville. Rodgers said the project will be a little more complicated because it has three typical roadway sections.
The first section will consist of building two 12 foot lanes at the intersecting roads as part of a future four lane road from 288 up to Vaughn Road in DeKalb County.
Section two goes from Vaughn Road to North of Morgan Branch and crews will build three center lanes of a future five lane road, Rodgers said.
Morgan Branch up to East Bryant Street will be five lanes wide with curb, gutter, and sidewalks.
Rodgers said the project from the county line to State Route 288 will follow the existing road alignment of Highway 56. One section of the project from 288 to East Bryant Street will deviate from the existing road.
“State Route 56 at Douglas Road will head off to the East and then come back to the existing State Route 56 at Vaughn Lane,” Rodgers said. “We had to deviate because there’s a church on one side and a cemetery on the other side. There’s just not room to put the new road between the church and the cemetery.”
A third phase of the project from State Route 287 to near the Warren and DeKalb County line remains in the environmental phase.
Rodgers said the project has been in the works since about 2000 and the recently passed Improve Act has helped spearhead the project.
A completion date has not been determined at this time.
