T-DOT’s new J-turn at Highway 111 should reduce traffic pressure on Cookeville’s South Maple after the road absorbed traffic increases in recent years.
Cookeville City Manager James Mills said the closure of the cut-through at Old Sparta Road and South Maple had reduced traffic. Completion of the project should give motorists a safer option for using Maple.
“I drive South Maple multiple times a day,” Mills said. “In fact, I live off South Maple, so I’m very well aware of the traffic that’s on South Maple. It has increased quite a bit, but it’s more than capable of carrying the amount of traffic that’s been carrying.”
Mills said traffic increased significantly as motorists used South Maple to avoid construction along South Jefferson Avenue. Mills said drivers approaching Cookeville from the south had limited alternatives during that work.
“It was either South Maple or 111 all the way, you know, up to I-40 to get into town,” Mills said. “So yeah, there weren’t really any other choices.”
Mills said the city resurfaced the road several years ago and completed extensive drainage improvements this year.
The J-turn project has generated questions from residents about why T-DOT chose the design instead of installing a traffic signal at the Highway 111 intersection.
“That’s not up to the City of Cookeville,” Mills said. “That is a state highway and this is T-DOT’s project to do the J-turn.”
Mills said T-DOT engineers studied the heavily traveled intersection and selected the J-turn as the preferred solution. The project will use a design similar to a J-turn already installed near Rickman.