Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer on Tuesday released TDOT’s annual three year transportation program, featuring approximately $2.6 billion in infrastructure investments for 101 individual project phases in 40 counties, as well as 15 statewide programs. It includes I-75 through Hamilton County.
Officials said, "The three-year program is more robust than previous years, due to funding increases through the IMPROVE Act, which is projected to raise an additional $150 million to meet the state’s infrastructure needs in FY 2018. This increase, combined with $120 million repayment to the highway fund, provides the necessary funds to move several backlogged and new transportation projects forward in the first year of the program."
Those include:
Blount-Knox Counties, US 129 (SR 115/Alcoa Highway)
Widening from SR 35 to proposed interchange at Tyson Boulevard
Widening from North of Little River to North of Maloney Road
Davidson County, I-440
Pavement rehabilitation and safety improvements from I-40 to I-24
Hamilton County, I-75
Reconstruction of interchange at I-24
Shelby County, US 78 (SR 4/Lamar Avenue)
Widening from Mississippi state line to south of Shelby Drive
The governor's office said, "The IMPROVE Act is a comprehensive, conservative and responsible plan that directly addresses how we fund our roads and bridges for the first time in 30 years. Many of these projects would not have moved forward for several years without this additional infrastructure investment. With this additional funding, TDOT can keep our transportation network safe, reliable and debt-free for the next generation of Tennesseans while spurring economic growth in communities across the state.”
Governor Haslam said the IMPROVE Act also identifies 526 locally owned bridges across Tennessee. With the new funding in place, TDOT has included a new funding category for the High Priority Bridge program in its overall budget. A delivery schedule for those bridges should be complete in the near future.
In addition to the 2018 budgeted program, partial plans for 2019 and 2020 are included, along with funding for 15 transportation programs including Rockfall Mitigation, Spot Safety Improvement, and the statewide HELP Program. The program also provides funding for transit agencies in all 95 counties, as well as Metropolitan and Rural Planning Organizations.
To view a complete list of projects and programs funded through the 2018-2020 three-year multimodal program, visit http://www.tn.gov/assets/entities/tdot/attachments/Three_Year_Transportation_Plan_(FY_18-20).pdf.