TN.gov Newsroom

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Department of Transportation will lower the speed limit on a large portion of Vietnam Veterans Boulevard (State Route 386) beginning Thursday, July 22, 2010. The speed limit will be reduced from 70 mph to 65 mph from the Davidson-Sumner County line near Mansker Creek to Greenlea Boulevard near Gallatin. Beyond Greenlea Boulevard, the incremental speed reductions already in place will remain. The speed limit on the stretch of Vietnam Veterans Boulevard from Interstate 65 to the Sumner County line will stay at 70 mph.

  

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely joined House Speaker Kent Williams and other state and local leaders today to officially open the new bridge over the Watauga River in the Siam community of Carter County. Traffic is already flowing on a new 2 lane concrete bridge that replaced a one lane steel structure originally built in 1941. The $1.55 million project was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and was one of the first ARRA construction projects in the state.

 

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Crews are preparing to conduct a number of major lane closures as work to seismically retrofit the Interstate 40/Hernando DeSoto Bridge over the Mississippi River continues. Crews will be replacing a large seismic joint on three bridge piers near Exit 1 in Memphis beginning August 3, 2010. The work will be broken into three phases. Phase One will begin August 3, 2010 and includes the total closure of the I-40 eastbound off ramp at exit 1 for three weeks. Phase Two and Three will last from September 7, 2010 until mid-November and will involve the reduction of I-40 to one lane in each direction for 71 days. 

 

 

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – All lanes of U.S. 129/State Route 115 are now open allowing traffic to flow freely from Blount County, Tennessee into North Carolina three weeks earlier than anticipated.

 

Crews finished paving, striping, and installing guard rail and reopened the roadway at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, July 9.

 

TDOT offered a $195,000 incentive to the contractor if the roadway opened by July 1, 2010. However, work on an unstable rock mass which began to slide on June 2 hindered the contractor from receiving the full incentive. Emergency contractor Pacific Blasting & Demolition Ltd. will receive $136,500 for finishing three weeks ahead of the estimated completion date of July 31.

 

 

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Crews are working on the final phase of the rockslide repairs on U.S. 129/State Route 115 in Blount County and plan to reopen the road completely this weekend, three weeks ahead of schedule.

 

Tennessee Department of Transportation emergency contractor Pacific Blasting & Demolition Ltd. finished with the scaling operations on the slide area the weekend of July 3 and 4. A total of 236 truckloads of rock were removed from the site over the course of a week. Installation of the wire mesh in the slide area was completed on Tuesday. 

 

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Home to the world’s busiest cargo airport, fourth largest inland port, five Class I railroads and several major interstates and highways, the movement of freight into and out of Memphis is a multi-billion dollar industry. On Thursday, July 8 at 1:00 p.m. CT, Tennessee will be one of three states to host the national release of a critical new national report on the state of America’s freight transportation system. Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely will join Arkansas State Highways and Transportation Department Director Dan Flowers and numerous local and state officials and industry representatives to release the new report Unlocking Freight. 

 

 

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – An approved Transportation Planning Report (TPR) for the Corridor K project in southeastern Tennessee is now complete and is available for public review on the Tennessee Department of Transportation website at Corridor K TPR. The TPR is intended to establish the immediate and long-term needs for the proposed Corridor K from west of the Ocoee River to SR-68

near Ducktown in Polk County and is part of TDOT’s overall planning process. The report assesses how the considered options fulfill the purpose and need of the project and also documents the planning process that has been implemented for the proposed Corridor K.

JACKSON, Tenn. –Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely joined state and local leaders in Gibson County to officially reopen McMurry Road after the reconstruction of three bridges along the roadway. The bridge replacement project was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and was the first Recovery Act project to get underway. Today, it is also the site of the first ribbon cutting for a Recovery Act funded project in Tennessee.
 

 

NASHVILLE – Road construction won’t slow travelers through Tennessee this July 4^th holiday weekend. The Tennessee Department of Transportation will suspend all construction related lane closures on interstates and state routes beginning at noon on Friday, July 2, 2010.