Local officials have some dates from T-DOT about major projects scheduled across the Upper Cumberland.
T-DOT Region 2 Planner Kevin Lane gave members of the Center Hill Rural Planning Organization an update on T-DOT’s current ten-year plan. In Putnam County, Lane said T-DOT will begin a widening project for I-40 in 2031, with construction beginning at the I-40 interchange on South Jefferson Avenue in 2032. Lane said communities need to continue asking for project funding.
“It is a tough thing there, but definitely, you keep pounding the pavement, so to say, and try to get something done,” Lane said. “I mean, if you don’t ask, you may not get it.”
Lane said finishing the Jefferson Avenue expansion from Highway 111 to I-40 this summer might be “a little optimistic.”
T-DOT also plans to widen Willow Avenue beginning in 2028. In the short term, construction will begin at the intersection of Willow Avenue and Interstate Drive in Cookeville in 2026. However, T-DOT officials
Lane said the widening projects planned for SR-28 in Cumberland County are expected to be completed in 2026. Lane said T-DOT is working on adding turn lanes to SR-299 the Flat Rock exit.
“I know there’s a lot of things going on right there,” Lane said. “And that’s something that we’ve connected the dots with TDOT and make sure that we’re involved in it to help you guys out with the money that we can because we know that that’s going to be a big deal now and moving towards your future.”
Lane said this year’s plan includes $80 million in recurring funding.
“$80 million of it will go to 130 lane miles of pavement, $700,000 of a square feet of Bridge deck treatment, and it’ll add a mowing and litter cycle and expand help trucks to about 46 rural counties,” Lane said.
Lane said this year, an additional $1 billion investment will be made. Most of that money will go to paving projects, but $50 million will be put into the State Infrastructure Fund, which offers low interest loans to local governments for transportation projects.
