Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer today released TDOT’s annual three year transportation program (2017-19), featuring approximately $2 billion in infrastructure investments for 79 individual project phases in 42 counties including DeKalb, as well as 15 statewide programs.
Among the projects in Region 2 is the widening of Highway 56 from south of State Route 288 near Magness Road to East Bryant Street in Smithville (4.5 miles). Budgeted for construction in Fiscal Year 2017.
The Warren-DeKalb Highway 56 project from south of the Warren County line to near Magness Road is scheduled for a construction letting this summer. It was scheduled for the June 24 letting but may shift to the August 19 letting, according to TDOT.
The three-year program (2017-19) continues the state’s focus on providing a high quality state transportation network that is safe and reliable and supports Tennessee’s economic development efforts. New federal transportation funding through the FAST Act federal legislation includes a roughly two percent increase for FY 2017 over FY 2016’s funding. The FAST Act also provides some one-time flexibility that allows TDOT to tap into an additional $147 million in federal money.
These increases combined with the $100 million repayment to the highway fund in the Haslam administration’s proposed FY 16-17 budget will give the department a somewhat larger building program in the upcoming fiscal year – an estimated $965 million in FY 2017, compared to $660 million in FY 2016.
Despite the increase in revenue for FY 2017, the department still has a multi-billion dollar backlog of unfunded highway and bridge projects that have been approved by the General Assembly, but lack available funding to move forward.
“This program reflects our commitment to increasing safety and economic development opportunities, while also remaining debt free on our roads, and these one-time funding increases will allow TDOT to move forward with nearly a billion dollars in much needed road projects in communities across the state,” Haslam said.
In addition to the 2017 budgeted program, partial plans for 2018 and 2019 are included, along with funding for 15 transportation programs including Rockfall Mitigation, Spot Safety Improvement, and the statewide HELP Program. The program also provides funding for transit agencies in all 95 counties, as well as Metropolitan and Rural Planning Organizations.
Please see the attached list of highlighted projects in each of TDOT’s four regions. To view a complete list of projects and programs funded through the 2017-2019 three-year multimodal program, visit http://www.tn.gov/assets/entities/tdot/attachments/FY_17-19_3_year_progr…. For more information about transportation funding, please visit https://www.tdot.tn.gov/ProjectNeeds/.
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