|
Highway Improvement Project Nears
October 14, 2004
HUNTSVILLE - The start of the long-awaited highway improvement project of U.S. Highway 27 from Elgin to Robbins could be just months away.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) has the summer months of 2005 circled to start the beginning stages of that particular project, as well as a similar project along State Highway 52 from the Morgan/Scott County line to its intersection with U.S. Highway 27. That's according to statements by TDOT Commissioner Gerald R. Nicely and Chief Engineer Paul Degges in a meeting with local government officials at the Scott County Office Building here Friday.
In a meeting that included Scott County Mayor Dwight Murphy, Scott County Commissioner Rick Keeton, Scott County Director of Schools Mike Davis, Scott County School Board Members Vivian Smith, Rodney west and Sam Wright, as well as State Senator Tommy Kilby and State Representative Les Winningham, Degges said that a public hearing will be held within the next few months in regards to the U.S. Highway 27 project.
"We have a hearing scheduled for December for local comments for the project from Wolf Creek to Robbins," Degges said. Persons who might be affected by the project would be notified of the meeting date, he said.
The highway improvement project will consist of 3.7 miles of roadway from one mile south of Elgin to Robbins. A related project will involve 4.8 miles of roadway along State Route 52 from the Morgan County/Scott County line to the highway's intersection with U.S. Highway 27. That project, Degges said, will also begin in 2005.
"People should start seeing us purchasing right-of-way in the summer of 2005," he said.
It is anticipated that the U.S. Highway 27 project might affect several parcels of property, most of them residential but including the Robbins First Baptist Church property on Simms Road in Robbins. It has also been speculated that the project might affect Robbins Elementary School.
Those projects, Degges said, are the "really big" projects that TDOT is working on in Scott County, but they're not the only projects at hand. Also pending is a new bridge at Burnt Mill Ford
across Clear Fork on Honey Creek Road. The old bridge has been closed for some time and is scheduled to be released for bids in December. Degges said that, at the request of County Mayor Murphy, the old bridge will be preserved and used as a footbridge.
Also pending is a bridge replacement project on Jeffers Road across Buffalo Creek. That project, Degges said, is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2005.
Commissioner Nicely said that after cutting back spending in the last year, his department is prepared to move forward with several projects now that the state's budget crisis is improving.
"I think we're making progress," Nicely said. "I think our budget situation is getting better."
Nicely said that TDOT expects to spend $600 million on road-related projects during the next fiscal year.
After Degges' comments, Smith asked that TDOT consider a turning lane on U.S. Highway 27 at the new Winfield School site in Winfield, and West asked that the department look at relocating the access to the Denim Processing facility in Oneida. Day shift at the plant, he said, releases at the same time as Burchfield School lets out classes for the day, creating traffic problems.
news@ihoneida.com
Enjoy the Independent Herald? Have it delivered to your door! Click here for details.
| 
