Slow progress on 41-A widening

Traffic on U.S. 41-A (Unionville Highway) will be slowed during November as crews from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) do grading and resurfacing work. Meanwhile, the widening of the highway between Shelbyville and Tullahoma will not begin until after right of way purchases are completed in 2009. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely) [Click to enlarge]

But the acquisition of land is only one part of the process, with no set date for the start of construction.

According to TDOT community relations officer B.J. Doughty, the state has broken the widening into two projects, the first being a section from State Highway 64 (Wartrace Pike) to State Highway 276 (Thompson Road) measuring 5.7 miles.

The section has 83 tracts, with one business and five residential relocations that must take place.

Doughty said the process has been going well up to this point.

"We've gotten most of the appraisals, on those tracts and we're waiting on the remaining appraisals and the negotiations have begun, but are in the very early stages," Doughty said Tuesday.

That process of surveying, getting cost estimates of the land and purchasing the properties will take anywhere from a year to 18 months to complete.

The second section to be acquired runs 4.2 miles from Highway 276 to the Coffee/Moore County line, where there are 56 pieces of property to be acquired -- including 12 residences and one business that will be moved.

The negotiations for the second section won't begin until Feburary of 2008.

A third part of the project has already been completed in Tullahoma: A stretch of road 2.2 miles long from Tullahoma to the Moore County line constructed at a cost of $8.04 million.

When construction eventually resumes, it will start on the Shelbyville end of the highway. The latest estimate for the cost of the entire 12.1 mile project is $40.8 to $44.3 million, Doughty said.

As for the actual widening work, TDOT will have to secure the construction funding following the completion of the acquiring the right of way. Doughty said the agency does not ask for funding for all three of the phases at once, "because it's not a good way to do business."

Whenever the construction begins, it will take anywhere from 18 months to two years to complete, he said.

But while work won't begin for on the widening for some time, TDOT is already busy with another project in Bedford County, grading and resurfacing a section of U.S. 41-A North from Jostens to State Highway 270 (Old Columbia Road).

That project began in late October and is expected to be completed at the end of this month, Doughty said.