Columns of a new Walking Horse & Eastern Railroad bridge off Railroad Avenue east of Shelbyville rise behind the old wooden bridge nearby. (T-G Photo by David Melson) [Click to enlarge]

CHAPEL HILL -- While construction of Shelbyville's eastern bypass remains the priority among regional transportation organizers who met here Thursday, a state official suggested they break a plan to four-lane Lewisburg Highway (State Route 64) into smaller projects.

The bypass is to go from U.S. 231 north of Shelbyville to the Tullahoma Highway, U.S. 41-A, east of Shelbyville. It's to be built in three phases during three years.

"It's the No. 1 priority for 2009," Bedford County Mayor Eugene Ray said of the Regional Planning Organization's ranking of Shelbyville's proposed bypass. Ray was making recommendations to the Tennessee Department of Transportation for this South Central Tennessee area.

The Regional Planning Organization is an advisory group based in Columbia with the South Central Tennessee Development District. It hosted a Thursday morning meeting at Henry Horton State Park where officials from Bedford, Marshall and other area counties gathered to update their priorities.

The ranking substantiates an announcement from State Rep. Curt Cobb last month when the Shelbyville Democrat reported that, barring unforeseen problems, the bypass will be in in the state's three-year plan and construction may start as soon as the federal fiscal year begins in October.

"One of the better things for us would be getting the bypass done to the east," Ray said Saturday morning while discussing the Regional Planning Organization meeting.

There had been proposals to greatly improve State Route 64, Lewisburg Pike, to have a four-lane divided highway between Shelbyville and Lewisburg. It was proposed as part of a larger concept to link Interstate 24 with I-65.

A 28.43 mile segment would cost $242 million, Regional Planning Organization Executive Director Sara Brown said after the meeting at the state park where she obtained those figures from Steve Allen, TDOT's director of project planning.

"TDOT would like us to look at other options," Brown said. "It may be that we could improve it with more passing lanes and alleviate the problems without having to widen it to a four-lane divided highway."

"They did report big projects will take longer to get funded," Ray said. "Smaller projects will get funding sooner."

Marshall County Zoning Administrator Don Nelson reported Allen's reasons for describing the Lewisburg Highway project as unlikely to gain approval from TDOT as presented.

"It does not meet the criteria [TDOT has for such projects] and the state doesn't have the money for it," Nelson said. "So, they suggested that the group look at it again in the spring and then break it into segments and reapply."

The segments should also be prioritized, Nelson said.

"The good news for Bedford County is there were six other projects for the area and Bedford County came out the winner" in terms of the number of projects with better rankings, he said.

Noting that construction of the 6.5-mile eastern portion of the Shelbyville bypass is ranked as the top priority, Nelson saw that the second and third priorities are in Bedford County. That's three of six in fiscal year 2009.

Ranked as No. 2 during 2009 is the improvement of 4.2 miles of the Tullahoma Highway (U.S. 41-A, SR-16) between Magnolia Lane and Thompson Creek Road (SR-276).

The third priority is Tullahoma Highway just east of Shelbyville to Thompson Creek Road.

The fourth, fifth and sixth priorities for next year are in Coffee, Giles and Marshall counties, in that order.

Two of them are for rights of way acquisition in Marshall and Coffee counties.

In Coffee County, the state will be working toward obtaining land for the improvement of State Route 55 toward Motlow State Community College.

In Marshall County, the state will be working toward obtaining land for the improvement of State Route 50, New Columbia Highway, from Lewisburg to the northwest toward I-65.

The third of three priorities for fiscal year 2010-11 is preliminary engineering for the western portion of the Shelbyville bypass, a proposed 12.6 segment that would go west from U.S. 231, curve south to cross U.S. 41-A, Unionville Highway, and then proceed to intersect with Lewisburg Highway at or near where State Highway 130 starts its southern route to Petersburg.