News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Jackson County officials are using a new TDOT application process to request Highway 56 be widened coming into the county.
County Mayor Randy Heady says the expansion project is vital to the county’s future.
“The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development wants to help us and wants us to have slabs ready for buildings to be put on for industry,” Heady says. “Yet the RFIs that come across my desk wants the four-lane highway to be within seven miles of another four-lane highway. We only have the two lanes for 18 miles. This is vital to the economic and community development of Jackson County.”
TDOT officially unveiled the new project application process Thursday during their Dale Hollow Rural Planning Organization (RPO) meeting in Cookeville. The new six-step process allows local officials to apply for projects sooner and stay informed on the project’s status.
Heady says Jackson County is currently the only one in the state to use the new application process so far.
“This being very important to me as Jackson County Mayor, this road infrastructure, I knew it was vital,” Heady says. “I went straight to Miss Andrea Noel and I said I wanted that form. I was just the first one to request it. I happened to be at the right place at the right time, I guess.”
Heady says he submitted his Community Transportation Planning Request, or CTPR Form, to Dale Hollow RPO Coordinator Mark Dudney following Thursday’s meeting.
According to the new application process, the next phase will include a site visit by the RPO coordinator to gather information regarding project details. The coordinator then has 90 days to complete an Assessment Information Package and submit it to the state for analysis.
