The massive pile of dirt looming over the landscape where Interstates 75 and 24 part ways is an early sign of the scope of the work that lies ahead.
The $132.6 million, three-stage project to improve the notoriously congested and wreck-prone interchange will take just shy of two-and-a-half years and require the patience of millions of drivers making their way through The Split. There are traffic headaches ahead, but they’ll pay off, said Tennessee Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson.
“One of the best things that can happen to us is people complaining about road construction,” said Watson, who joined a crew of local lawmakers and officials from the Tennessee Department of Transportation at the site on Tuesday afternoon.
“By the time they finish this, the state will have invested north of $1 billion in road improvements in our area in the last eight to 10 years. There’s clear recognition that this area of the state is a huge hub for transportation.”
Decked out in fluorescent hard hats and safety vests, the group drove up what they jokingly call Mt. Matthews – a massive hill of dirt named for C.W. Matthews, the contractor out of Atlanta that’s doing the work. Tennessee Transportation Commissioner Clay Bright was paying his first visit to the site, the second-costliest road project in the state.