Spot Safety Project Underway Along Putnam County’s Highway 70

Safety upgrades underway at the intersection of Hawkins Crawford Road and Plunk Whitson Road in Putnam County.

Construction will take place intermittently over several weeks, during which flaggers and lane closures will be placed. T-DOT Community Relations Officer Rae Anne Bradley said the construction is regarded as a Spot Safety project.

“As part of this safety project, T-DOT will be installing an overhead flashing beacon to span the intersection,” Bradley said. “The reason for this is we’re noticing a lot of angle crashes on this intersection west of Cookeville, so that’s what made it qualify for our Spot Safety funding.”

Bradley said Regional Traffic Engineering Office submitted the Spot Safety project in February 2021. Bradley said work was delayed by a missing part in the contractor’s order, and construction will hopefully begin within the month.

“The order was missing a bracket that was required to properly mount the flashing lights to the pole,” Bradley said. “So the bracket has been ordered and is scheduled to be in this month and the work will be completed soon after that.”

Work also going to improve intersections along Old Kentucky Road and Burgess Falls Road in rural Putnam County.

Bradley said that T-DOT can usually work with contractors so that supply chain issues do not impact timelines, but sometimes it is unavoidable. Bradley said the reason supply chain issues impacted this project so heavily was because of the necessity of what was missing.

“We have seen supply chain issues on several of our projects over the past couple of years,” Bradley said. “I think COVID initially kind of exacerbated some of the supply chain issues that we’re experiencing now.”

Bradley said that the work itself will be finished in the next several months.