Bypass project to heat up during spring, summer

Sunday, February 15, 2009
By Brian Mosely

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Bids for the long awaited Shelbyville bypass will be let in May with construction to begin in July, if all goes according to plan.

City manager Ed Craig announced at Thursday's Shelbyville study session that city officials met this week for a review meeting with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), attended by Craig, Shelbyville mayor Wallace Cartwright and public works director Mark Clanton.

The bids for the project will be let out on May 1 for approval and work should begin around July 1, Craig said.

Funding for the bypass would come from federal economic stimulus money if president Barack Obama's relief package is approved, TDOT said in December.

However, TDOT commissioner Gerald Nicely told a Nashville television station Friday that if the state doesn't act quickly, the stimulus money could vanish and no longer be available to the state.

Nicely told WSMV after returning from Washington, D.C. that "they want the projects out quickly. They want the money on the ground and create jobs as soon as possible."

He added that if construction projects are not ready to start immediately, Tennessee could lose part of the estimated $600 million expected under the package for bridge and road repair.

The bypass, which would wrap around the city's northeastern quadrant from U.S. 231 north of Shelbyville to U.S. 41-A east of town, is one of 246 so-called "ready to go" projects that TDOT listed on its web site last December.

The list, totalling nearly $1.7 billion worth of projects, includes items that have passed planning, design, environmental and right-of-way acquisition phases and are ready to go to contract within 180 days, TDOT said.

TDOT added that projects not "ready to go" may be funded by the state's traditional methods.

However, the state is hoping for stimulus money to put construction crews to work while improving transportation infrastructure.

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yeah these guys tore down my Dad's barn on his property before negotiations were complete as to what they were going to pay for it. There was still antiques in the barn he had not removed yet. It happened the day before Thanksgiving, with no notice.

Repeat: The TN Government tore down my father's barn without permission! What kinda of country is this where the government can barge in on your property and destroy it just because they want to??? They only wanted to pay $1,500 for the barn, go try to build one for that!

They low-balled him on some parts of the 23 acres they took even when the cost of real estate was at it's peak.

Remember you "own" nothing in this country, you only "rent" it...try not paying your property taxes and see how long you get to keep "your" stuff....

-- Posted by zygoat on Tue, Feb 17, 2009, at 7:16 AM