The intersection of Lee Highway and Edgmon Road in Ooltewah has been the site of multiple crashes over the years. In December, one person died from a head-on collision. Less than a week prior, another driver was airlifted following a fiery crash near the site.
That portion of Lee Highway is winding, feeding into a blind curve before Edgmon - known as Dead Man Gap - and drivers' view both on Edgmon and Lee Highway is often blocked.
About three years ago, the city of Collegedale put in a request to the Tennessee Department of Transportation for a stoplight to be added at the intersection. News reports from that time said the addition would happen in 2019, but that date came and went.
Now, the project may finally come to fruition.
The plans for installing a traffic signal at the intersection and adding a left-turn lane on Edgmon are going out to bid Feb. 7, TDOT Community Relations Officer Jennifer Flynn said in an email.
City Manager Ted Rogers said in an email that the turn-lane addition had no timeline as of early January. However, the stoplight should be added to the intersection soon, "hopefully this year," he wrote.
Over the years, the city has brought up different ideas to make the intersection safer, including buying the property across from the intersection in a proposal to widen the lanes.
In May 2016, the city lowered the speed limit on Lee Highway from 55 mph to 45 mph, according to commission minutes from the time. Police Chief Brian Hickman had presented an independent report by Meyer Transportation Consultants that concluded the crash rate for Collegedale's section of the thoroughfare was 246% higher than the allowable crash rate at that time, according to the minutes.
"This project is important because it will increase the safety of the intersection, particularly for drivers turning left from Edgmon Road onto Lee Highway," Flynn wrote in an email.
Email Sabrina Bodon at sbodon@timesfreepress.com.