The bid process has been completed, the contract has been awarded and construction begins on the elimination of a U-turn – while adding a left turn at Casey Jones Lane – on the U.S. Highway 45 Bypass at Interstate 40.

Delta Contracting Company LLC, was awarded the contract after submitting the lowest bid of $67,947,416.87.

“We expect the intersection at Casey Jones Lane and Carriage House Drive to be complete by May 31, 2018,” said Cody Roberts, during a meeting at the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Thursday. “All work has to be completed on the 45 Bypass before work begins on North Highland Avenue.”

Roberts, the operations district manager at the Tennessee Department of Transportation, said at North Highland Avenue, the interchange will be reconfigured with the elimination of the northeast and southwest ramps at exit 82, creating a Single Point Urban Interchange, which should increase the efficiency of the intersection.

Roberts said the redesign also includes the rebuilding of the on and off ramps at the bypass.

Planned improvement projects will also incorporate widening from four lanes to six lanes of Interstate 40 just east of exit 79 at Hollywood Drive to just east of exit 82 at U.S. 70 East.

“The job is not difficult,” Roberts said. “It’s the traffic that’s difficult. The funding is not in the IMPROVE Act, but it freed up the money for these projects.”

The IMPROVE Act -“Improving Manufacturing, Public Roads and Opportunities for a Vibrant Economy” – is a proposal introduced by Governor Bill Haslam in January earmarked to help fund the state’s $10 billion backlog in road projects.

Clark Shaw, CEO of the Old Country Store at Casey Jones Village, said Thursday’s announcement has been years in the making.

“We are super excited,” Shaw said. “It’s going to make it so much safer for everybody traveling in the area. This started 20 years ago, with a petition to the Governor, (Don) Sundquist at the time … and we’re almost there – it’s actually going to happen this time.”

When the Keith Short Bypass was built in 1964, it had an average of 3,180 vehicles per day.

The number surpasses the 50,000 mark, today.

(PHOTO: Cody Roberts, the operations district manager at the Tennessee Department of Transportation is pictured with Nichole Lawrence, Region 4 Community Relations Officer at TDOT)
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