Putnam County awaiting a decision from T-DOT regarding a proposed partnership to extend Tennessee Avenue to Gainesboro Grade.
Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said the project stems from a joint transportation committee formed in 2017 to identify the top road needs for the area. Porter said the county previously used a grant to complete engineering work and a study on the feasibility of the extension.
“It will take TDOT agreeing to do the project with us,” Porter said. “I mean, that’s a huge price tag for just the county to take on to extend that road. And it’s going to be connecting over to, it’s going to be connecting two state roads, the interstate and Gainesboro Grade, which is a special section of roads that T-DOT calls connector roads.”
Porter said the estimated cost for the Tennessee Avenue extension is approximately $40 million. Porter said he reached out to T-DOT last year to discuss a potential partnership but has not yet received a response.
“I know that us doing all the engineering work and plans and everything that was done with that grant is a big step forward in that, and I’m hoping it moves us up on the list of the projects,” Porter said. “I know they’ve got billions of dollars worth of projects that they’re needing to do, and so I guess it’ll all depend on where that falls on the list of their projects.”
Porter said the state agency indicated that projects are more likely to receive funding if the local municipality offers to contribute a portion of the costs. Porter said the county has informed the state it is willing to look at providing funds to help the project move forward.
“Well, I think it could be great. It’s going to make another way to get from Gainesboro Grade over to Tennessee Avenue and to Highway 70,” Porter said. “It’s going to take a lot of the traffic off of that little two-lane County Farm Road.”
Porter said the extension would provide a necessary alternative to County Farm Road, which currently handles a high volume of traffic from motorists cutting across to the interstate or Jackson. Porter said a bridge on County Farm Road will eventually need to be replaced, which would require closing the road and forcing traffic into town.
“I think the only thing is we’re at the mercy of TDOT when it comes to this. And we love TDOT. We’ve got a great relationship with them,” Porter said. “But we’d be at their mercy as to when ever this might happen. So we’re just keeping our fingers crossed and hope that, hope we hear from them soon.”