Mayor Littlefield blasts TDOT on slow work

BY THE NUMBERS$9.6 million: Cost of constructing the entire road to Apison Pike6.9: Project miles between exit 9 and East Brainerd Road0.6: Mileage of initial leg from Interstate 75 to Apison Pike

Mayor Ron Littlefield is criticizing the Tennessee Department of Transportation for taking too long to complete a new road from Interstate 75 to Apison Pike.

"The traffic is building," Littlefield said recently. "Every day they delay, it's going to keep building."

But TDOT responded that the project always has been slated for completion in December 2012.

"The project is progressing as scheduled," said TDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn.

State officials plan a three-stage improvement of Apison Pike, or state Route 317, beginning with a new road from the Volkswagen exchange at exit 9 to the intersection of Apison Pike and Old Lee Highway. The road would be about six-tenths of a mile long and include a bridge, state records show.

Flynn said the second stage is widening 2.2 miles of Apison Pike to Ooltewah-Ringgold Road, and the last stage is widening 4.1 miles of Apison Pike to East Brainerd Road.

She acknowledged that Apison Pike "right now is handling more traffic than it's set up to." But when the project is completed in December 2012, it will ease congestion on other heavily traveled roads such as Ooltewah-Ringgold and East Brainerd, Flynn said.

She said the construction schedule cannot be helped because funding also comes in phases.

"We have to develop in phases," she said.

County Commissioner Chester Bankston, who represents the area, said he hoped the schedule for completion could be moved up.

"I think they're a little behind schedule," he said.

Flynn said that was not the case.

Bankston said he hoped the first and second stages would be done at the same time.

"It would relieve some of the traffic flow," he said.

But even if that does not happen, the new road from exit 9 will provide access to I-75 for tractor-trailers from McKee Foods on Apison Pike, he said.

Flynn said the state has acquired most of the right of way and that contractors are clearing ground.

The city got involved after it annexed portions of Apison Pike and Old Lee Highway last year.

Littlefield has said one reason for the annexations was to handle expected growth along the new road from exit 9.

The city also spent millions developing the Summit of Softball complex on Apison Pike.

Littlefield said the area is a "traffic nightmare already" and that other factors will soon present problems for planners, such as continued growth of McKee Foods.

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