The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is preparing to transform a 30-mile stretch of I-24 from Nashville to Murfreesboro into the state's first smart corridor designed to notify motorists and keep traffic moving when an accident takes place.
Work is expected to be done in several phases over the next 12 years, including improvements to roads and ramps and the installation of an intelligent transportation system (ITS), and could cost about $125 million. TDOT has yet to release details on the plan, which takes a comprehensive approach to managing existing infrastructure and improving vehicle movement to make travel time more reliable between Rutherford and Davidson counties, according to department officials.
The first phase involving installation of technology and signs to send messages to motorists is pending at an estimated $37 million, according to state officials. Bids are expected to be taken in November on the initial work for the project, which runs from I-440 in Nashville to Murfreesboro affecting 11 interchanges, and is supposed to make the interstate and Murfreesboro Road work together to move traffic more efficiently.
The next phase would deal with about $22 million worth of interstate ramp improvements at Rutherford County interchanges. Then three more Rutherford County interchange ramps will be improved and several ramps in Davidson County will be reworked. Several ramps will be rebuilt or reconfigured, and some bridges will have to be replaced.
Some funding for the project will come from the IMPROVE Act passed in 2017 by the state Legislature, which included a three-year gas tax increase to fund a host of road and bridge improvement projects.
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Source: The Murfreesboro Post
