The City recently received Notice to Proceed approval from the Tennessee Department of Transportation to begin acquiring rights of way for a redesign of the Washington Pike corridor between Interstate 640 and Murphy Road.

The estimated $17 million project will improve traffic flow and safety, and as the project enters its next phase, a follow-up public meeting has been organized to update area residents, businesses and churches.

The public meeting will be held 6-8 pm. on Wednesday, May 29, at the New Harvest Park Community Building, 4775 New Harvest Lane.

Meeting attendees will be introduced to the team with the City’s rights-of-way acquisition consultant, Johnson, Mirmiran, and Thompson (JMT).

The ROW acquisition phase is expected to continue for up to 18 months. The project calls for purchasing nearly 60 property easements.

The road redesign will add turn lanes and correct accident-prone intersections. On average, there’s an accident every four days at Washington Pike and Lifespring Lane. But that’s just one example. There are issues with other overworked intersections and the existing roads being unable to accommodate the volume of traffic throughout the corridor.

Washington Pike would remain five lanes on the western end of the project area, where Greenway Drive ties in near the Target store. The pike would narrow to three lanes by New Harvest Lane, then expand back to five lanes, including a turn lane, at Steeple Shadow Way and Babelay Road and continue on in that configuration to the City limits at Murphy Road.

At that point, turn lanes would carry traffic onto Murphy or Pullman roads, and Washington Pike to the east would continue in its current two lanes.

Click here to read more details on the Washington Pike Corridor Project.


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