Cleveland, Tennessee, Assistant City Manager Melinda CarrollCLEVELAND, Tenn. - Motorists on APD 40 soon may see the first signs of development south of the perimeter highway.
A Cleveland company is the low bidder for a new road to link two little-used, dead-end roads at the edges of a future industrial park.
Assistant City Manager Melinda Carroll said Wednesday the city is awaiting final approval from the Tennessee Department of Transportation before completing a $2.5 million contract with Steve Williams Construction Co.
"We expect it this week," Carroll said. "I will have an announcement Monday at the council meeting. Steve Williams is ready to roll."
The work is expected to be completed in August.
Williams' bid beat out those from four other companies, all from East Tennessee.
"It's good when you get local companies competing for local contracts," City Councilman Richard Banks said.
Joining the two roads would provide a peripheral road around the west and north sides of the industrial park planned at Interstate 75 exit 20.
TDOT calls such roads local interstate connectors. This one, labeled LIC (South), is planned to link the industrial park to a yet-to-be-built APD 40 interchange about halfway between U.S. 11 and I-75.
Plans call for an LIC (North) to link to the future interchange as well.
At its meeting last week, the Cleveland City Council accepted TDOT's plan for the interchange itself, at the Stone Lake extension.