Bids open Tuesday to award a summer project to widen Interstate Drive at South Jefferson Avenue according to Cookeville Public Works.
Public Works Director Mary Beth Elrod said the project includes a 150-foot lane widening to create a dedicated right-hand turn lane. Elrod said the expansion will allow for two full straight-through lanes from Interstate Drive onto Neil Street across Jefferson Avenue.
“This will include the grading to add that lane, stormwater system install and then of course it’ll be the full milled and repaved entire five-lane segment for that section of Interstate Drive roadway,” Elrod said. “And so I’ll have that for you before Thursday’s meeting.”
City Manager James Mills said the city expects to coordinate the widening with several other nearby road improvements, including a sidewalk project and the repair of a significant dip in the roadway near Starbucks. Mills said construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in July and reach completion by November.
“Well, you know we don’t have enough complaints so we might as well just do the whole thing up,” Mills said. “But you’re going to have the sidewalk project, the dip repair, the widening, the paving of Jefferson. It’s going to be John will he loves coming into work. He drives up Jefferson every day. But you know it’s like pulling ripping the band-aid off. We’ll get it all done at once and it’s going to be really, really nice.”
Elrod said the city held a mandatory pre-bid meeting for the widening project that drew three potential bidders. Elrod said two fully vetted bidders have since picked up plans for the work.
“It’ll probably be after August,” Mills said. “I’m guessing it’ll start sometime in July and be done sometime in November would be my guess. And this all kidding aside, this is this project I think is going to make a big difference for that intersection. So it’s really going to help traffic get through there.”
Mills said the rapid progress of the current sidewalk work in the area has been encouraging compared to previous long-term city projects. Mills said the sidewalk project has taken approximately six months to complete a significant amount of work.
“I mean it’s you know we I always think back to the Spring Street project which has taken us 13 years and this one’s taking us six months, you know and it’s about 10 times the amount of sidewalk,” MIlls said.
Elrod said the city will also address stormwater issues at the Walnut Street crossing during the upcoming construction.