Cookeville’s South Jefferson Avenue construction project entering its final punch list phase with all main travel lanes now open to drivers.
T-DOT Regional Communications Officer Rae Anne Bradley said crews have several technical items to address, including damaged reinforced concrete drainage pipes, concrete ramp sealing and expansion joints.
“There is a period of time that folks will need to kind of get used to the changes that we’ve made,” Bradley said, “But I just always like to reiterate to folks that’s just part of the process and all of these changes and improvements that we have made are to upgrade this stretch of roadway.”
Bradley said remaining work includes installing a permanent traffic signal at Henley Drive, new street light poles and pedestrian push buttons for the West Cemetery Road crosswalk. Snow-plowable pavement markers also remain to be installed.
“These items are very minor, small things but still important things that need to be accounted for and completed as part of the project,” Bradley said. “So the contractor’s just working through those as their schedule allows and for the most part when completing this work, all lanes of travel are going to remain open.”
Bradley said the project included widening near the State Route 111 interchange and improvements around the nearby school. TDOT considered school traffic as it developed the project limits.
“We do everything in our power to make sure that we make every single accommodation necessary for the school and we know there are going to be a lot of folks impacted by what we’re doing in and around schools so we want to make sure that people can get in and out of there safely during construction and then obviously once the project is complete that it makes ingress and egress much easier and helps reduce congestion in and around that school,” Bradley said.
Bradley said drivers could still encounter construction barrels or intermittent lane closures while the punch-list work continues. Much of the remaining work is planned during nighttime hours.
“We don’t anticipate any additional or further major disruptions to traffic,” Bradley said. “Any intermittent lane closures that will be needed to facilitate the work that we’ve already talked about will be very minor and very quick.”
Bradley said T-DOT expects the entire project to be completed by mid-November.