The Tennessee Department of Transportation is scheduled to begin soliciting bids Aug. 18 for construction of the widening of the full 3.1-mile stretch of Duplex Road from Main Street to Interstate 65 in Spring Hill.
The bid letting process allows companies to bid on the project’s construction phase, for which TDOT has budgeted $17.3 million. The City of Spring Hill has invested nearly $10 million into engineering, design, right-of-way acquisition, and for the cost of utility relocations along the state roadway. TDOT is managing the utility relocations, and will fund and manage the remaining construction phase of the project.
“It’s still early to project a construction start date as there are a number of factors that could impact it, such as the outcome of the bid process, contract negotiations, the progress of pre-construction meetings, unexpected inclement weather, the remaining timeline for utility relocations, and other factors,” the city wrote in a press release.
Currently, above and underground utilities are still being relocated to the edges of the expanded right-of-way path by each of the respective utility companies (including Middle Tennessee Electric, Columbia Power, City of Spring Hill Water and Sewer, Atmos Energy natural gas, Charter Communications, and AT&T). This work must be complete before any construction can begin.
The TDOT project will widen the full 3.1-mile stretch of Duplex Road to three lanes (two travel lanes and a center turn lane) from U.S. 31 (Main Street) to I-65, complete with curb and gutter, a sidewalk on the south side of the road and a multi-use path on the north side. The sidewalk and multi-use path will each be separated from the roadway by a narrow grass median.
The project will greatly improve vertical and horizontal roadway alignment by cutting down blind hills and properly aligning the roadway for better visibility, the city said.
The project also includes installation of four new traffic signals on Duplex, two of which have already been installed by the City at Port Royal Road and Miles Johnson Parkway. The third temporary signal is currently being installed at Buckner Lane, and the final signal will be at Commonwealth Drive. Each of these signals, initially erected with wooden poles, is considered temporary, as they will be replaced with permanent, metal, cantilever-style signal installations once the road is widened.
