DUNLAP, Tenn. — If you’re looking for the least popular new idea in Sequatchie County, it would almost have to be the peanut-shaped roundabout proposed at the intersection of U.S. Highway 127 and state Highway 28 in the county seat of Dunlap.
The state project, first pitched in 2022, seeks to widen roads, install pedestrian facilities and improve traffic flow on the south end of town, but some residents and business owners are dubious of the shape of things to come.
Rankin Avenue is U.S. 127’s name inside the town limits, bisecting Dunlap north and south and continuing north through town toward Pikeville and Crossville. Currently, Rankin Avenue and state Highway 28 meet and combine at the intersection, while Main Street — a narrow, two-lane street running parallel to Rankin Avenue — enters from the north and ends at Rankin Avenue. All the roads create a four-way intersection presently controlled by traffic lights.
The widening portion of the project is popular enough, but the peanut-shaped roundabout — dubbed a “peanutabout” by the state — constructed in place of a signal-controlled intersection is raising doubts among nearby business owners.