Work On Tennessee Avenue Facing Some Delays

A portion of Tennessee Avenue is to remain closed as construction is still underway.

Cookeville City Manager James Mills said that Garrett Brothers Construction and FedEx both originally agreed to do portions of the road work, with an additional grant from TDOT. He said that the work has run into some issues during its progress.

“One being some utility extension for the FedEx site,” Mills said. “The street was going to have to be cut for that so it was delayed. We didn’t want to pave a street and then go back and cut it right away to run utilities. So we’re trying to time it that all of those were completed.”

Mills said that they also run into potential problems with the undercut. He said that there may have to be more excavation done and rock put in, which is being explored.

“We’re trying to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars,” Mills said. “And these two companies we’re so glad to have them here, but they did agree to complete a portion of the improvements on their own dime without involving taxpayer dollars. And those are the best type of projects and we wish we could always have it like that. I would encourage people to be patient. You hear all the time that sometimes progress is slow, and in this case it is.”

Mills said that they had a meeting Monday morning with the engineering and construction doing the FedEx site about expediting the process as much as possible. He said that he expects it to be another several weeks before completion.