Conflicts over the design of a long-sought modernization of Highway 27 from Olgiati Bridge to Interstate 24 have stalled the project and tested the city and the Tennessee Department of Transportation for years. There’s virtually no elbow room to spare between buildings on the slope of Cameron Hill and those at its downtown foot for a remodeling of the curvy highway that would simultaneously make it safer, straighter, more efficient and more pedestrian friendly at the key interchanges at Fourth Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.
So it was inevitable that local architects and urban planners suggested changes to the latest TDOT plan for the Fourth Street junction when they finally got a chance to offer a group critique of the plan. Others who have seen the plan are concerned, as well, that the proposed roundabout at M.L. King Boulevard would challenge the mobility of the large number of Westside residents who regularly walk – or ride mobile wheelchair scooters – into town from College Hill Courts and the high-rise apartments for seniors.
What’s troubling is that TDOT Commissioner John Schroer, irked by the issues raised against what he believed was the final plan, says he will now yank the plan off his current three-year construction calendar. That would put it back in the design hopper until the department and the city could reach a consensus agreement.
The last time that happened occurred 12 years ago, when TDOT and former Mayor Bob Corker’s office divided over a state proposal that was widely criticized as a high, formidable barrier that would have effectively walled off downtown from the Westside. The city shouldn’t have to get off the current construction calendar again to resolve the latest concerns.
The current proposal clearly attempts to address the problems raised in the Corker administration. The south-bound offramp from a widened Olgiati Bridge would essentially mirror the city’s proposal then for a softer, boulevard-style parallel road that would empty traffic at signaled intersections at Fourth and Sixth Streets, and at the proposed roundabout at M.L. King Boulevard – all on the west side of Highway 27.