News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A recent Putnam County transportation survey revealed area residents would like to see a truck lane created on I-40 on Monterey Mountain.
The county’s transportation committee met Wednesday to discuss the results of the countywide survey. County Executive Randy Porter said he was surprised the truck lane idea was the public’s number one priority.
“I travel I-40 a lot going to Monterey and I see the need,” Porter said. “But that need has been there for years and it just keeps getting worse. It’s a little bit surprising it was number one by such a high majority, but it’s not surprising it was on the top ten list.”
A proposed truck lane would help ease congestion on I-40 eastbound travelling up Monterey Mountain. Of the 1,151 responses to the survey question, over half ranked the project in the top-five most-wanted projects.
Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton agreed that the Monterey Mountain project is needed.
“I think if you have ever been stuck there – which I drive it twice a week myself – then that is a challenge,” Shelton said. “It’s not surprising that that’s one of the top things, really.”
Among the top-five projects from the survey include three within Cookeville. Shelton said he’s not surprised by the results of the survey.
“We’ve got some transportation challenges coming up and we knew that and the survey kind of proved that,” Shelton said. “Now it’s come upon us to figure out and work with TDOT as we’ve done today… trying to gather information as to how we can move those [projects] forward quicker.”
The Cookeville projects in the top-five include improvements on the South Jefferson exit, adding a turn lane to South Jefferson near East Spring Street, and adding an additional turn lane on South Willow near West Jackson.
Porter said he was surprised projects improving traffic flow on East 10th Street didn’t resonate as well with survey takers as he thought it would. The proposal, which would help improve the Highway 111 intersection, ranked 12th overall among all projects.
“I hear a lot of people talk about all the traffic on East 10th… I would have thought it would have been in the top four or five,” Porter said. “You never know with the people. A lot of times, the people that take the survey, their top two or three projects are going to be what they travel on a day-to-day basis.”
Three projects from Baxter were in the top-ten most-wanted projects according to the survey. One such proposal includes the previously-discussed traffic signal at the intersection of Highway 56 and Highway 70.
Over 1,200 residents participated in the online survey. The Monterey Mountain project received the most overall responses, and was included in nearly 300 more “most-needed” votes than any other proposal.
The committee will meet again Wednesday, Aug. 8 to further discuss the results and narrow down the list to the county’s most-needed projects.
