On Tuesday night, right about the time traffic on Interstate 65 would have been letting up, the Tennessee Department of Transportation heard from the community on the oft-congested roadway.
As part of a series of public meetings around the state on TDOT’s 18-month study of the Interstate 65 corridor, anyone who travels I-65 on a regular basis was invited to attend and provide feedback at the Williamson County Public Library, 1314 Columbia Avenue, in Franklin.
The I-65 Multimodal Corridor Study is an 18-month study, started in January, covering a distance of 120.16 miles, from the Alabama state line to the Kentucky state line. The study will identify short- and long-term solutions for improving problem spots along the I-65 corridor.
TDOT and its consultant team, Gresham, Smith and Partners, are investigating a range of multimodal solutions to address future travel demands, congestion, and safety. The team will also examine the potential for freight diversion and the ability to enhance the corridor’s economic benefits.
“Tonight we are introducing the study, the fourth interstate study TDOT has done after I-40, I-24 and I-75. We are introducing the big issues we have found so far, and hope to get input on the small issues,” John Houghton, senior planner for GS and P, said. “We can paint the big picture, but obviously people who travel it every day can give us specific input unique to them.”
Maps were laid out on tables around the room representing the 120 mile stretch they are studying. Post-it notes were available for people to point out where and what the problems are on the 2 by 3 foot satellite prints representing the interstate corridor. Anyone can provide the same input by going to the project website or to participate in a brief survey, visit www.tn.gov/tdot/article/i65study.
Houghton began the presentation by pointing out what his team has found so far:
Population is increasing, 650,000 people live within 5 miles of the interchange, which is 1 in 10 Tennesseans. By 2040, that is expected to grow to 1 million.
With that, volume will also increase. A total of 763,000 vehicles travel I-65 each day. That increases to one million by 2040.
TDOT concluded that, given these growth estimates, traffic is headed in a bad direction.
Travel times are projected to nearly double by 2040 up and down I-65. The 25-30 minute commute from Franklin to Nashville will be 55-60 minutes. From Spring Hill to Franklin will increase from 20-25 minutes to 35-40.
Also, it is going to continue getting worse both ways, what Houghton called a reverse commute, as people are traveling away from Metro Nashville in the morning and back to it in the afternoon just as much as the reverse.
The most pressing reasons identified for traffic specific to the central part of I-65 include: congestion from population and commute growth; the ‘reverse commute’ phenomenon; and lack of transit solutions.
In the south, economic development and Spring Hill and Maury County growth were the two big drivers, he said.
Houghten said after this meeting, which was the last of three public meetings, the team would process the data and look at the input before writing out its recommendations for specific solutions to specific problems, sometime in spring of 2017. He said they will then hold public meetings again, presenting their solutions, to seek further public feedback.
Solutions, or tools, at their disposal include:
– Lane additions, interchange improvements and major reconstruction.
-Systems management and operations, message boards as real time info to future of communication technologies including autonomous vehicles like Uber’s OTTO.
-Transportation demand management, like flexible work hours
-Transit expansion
-Evaluate existing and future conditions
-Identify issues along the corridor
-Develop strategies, solutions and recommendations
The point is to make sure the projects that TDOT spends its limited money on are the most pressing and important ones, Houghton said.
This is the fourth TDOT corridor study.
