As construction gets closer to ending on South Jefferson Avenue, the Prescott Schools traffic plan will be the same as the one at the end of last year
Cookeville Police Department Traffic Division Sargent Thomas Smith said traffic will be allowed to travel north and south when coming out of the school. Smith said it will be the traffic guard’s discretion that will determine how northbound traffic backups will be handled.
“If traffic starts backing up on the northbound, he’s either going to have to stop that flow coming out of the school,” Smith said. “Or they can go south toward Highway 111 until that backup clears a little bit so we can send more traffic out.”
Smith said he hopes T-DOT will soon open a left turn lane for the northbound traffic to turn into the school. Smith said the lack of a turn lane has contributed to the backups.
Smith said in the past, drivers who want to go north but have been redirected to the south have used the water treatment plant as a turn around. Smith said there are alternate routes for redirected drivers.
“The easy button would be to go down to Highway 111, go north on 111 until they can get off on Maple and go around that way,” Smith said. “Or go up to I-40 and take I-40 up to South Jefferson. I understand that adds a few minutes to the route, but that would be the easy button.”
Smith said last year, there were challenges for northbound traffic because there was no turn arrow at the West Cemetery Road intersection on South Jefferson Ave. He said the road only had one lane in each direction, causing slowdowns when people wanted to make a left there. A turn lane has since been installed.
Smith said at the beginning of the school year, there will likely be more congestion because some parents want to drive their kids for the first few weeks. He hopes the added turn lane and arrow will ease some of that congestion.
“What I would say is plan ahead,” Smith said. “Leave the house a little earlier just because the increased congestion. Plan for those things so the accidents and those sort of things are at a lesser chance of happening.”