North Willow Avenue Widening Project Made A Priority

Widening Cookeville’s North Willow Avenue has been made a priority by the Center Hill Regional Planning Organization.

Center Hill RPO Coordinator Virginia Alexander said North Willow Avenue is a pre-engineering priority. The widening is in the area of Willow Avenue is from West Broad Street to West 12th Street.

The next steps will be an issue of T-DOT’s timing.

“Some of these T-DOT projects can take up to twenty years, so it just depends on that process,” Alexander said. “As long as it’s in the ranking process and it is already part of the IMPROVE Act funding, so there’s already funding allocated for it, it’s just a matter of the timing.”

Alexander said T-DOT will assess the roadway to see what will be needed to move the project forward. Alexander said organization members annually prioritize local projects based on need.

She said there are four to five total projects ranked as construction or planning priorities, and they are scored separately.

“These are the RPO rankings, so these will be combined with multiple organizations and other scores throughout Tennessee,” Alexander said. “They are divided up by region but each department of T-DOT has a say, and then it’s combined with the RPO scores and comments, as well.”

IMPROVE Act funding comes through fuel and vehicle tax and fee increases that began in 2017. For example, increases in registration fees and taxes on gas and diesel fuel.