The Tennessee Department of Transportation has notified Mayor Carmichael that the “enhanced diamond” interchange design was selected for the Canada Road/I-40 Interchange rather than “single point” interchange desired by the City.
Good news is that the “enhanced diamond” has a 20-year design life. The original “diamond interchange” would have been obsolete as soon as it was constructed so the efforts of the City have not been completely in vain and will mean a much better interchange.
The Board of Commissioners will also review the option of the City paying for the single point interchange design after a report by the consultant Traffic Engineer.
Portions of the TDOT letter to Mayor Carmichael are noted below:
The Department of Transportation has selected the conventional diamond concept for the interchange of Interstate 40 and
The estimated costs for each interchange form were a large factor in this decision. As you may know, since December of 2005, TDOT has lost more than $171 million in federal highway funding. As such, with the statewide commitments underway the department is unable to provide the estimated $3 million in additional funds required for the single point interchange.
The Department is willing to consider the single point interchange further if the additional costs can be provided through local funding sources. Should you be interested in providing the additional funding, pleased contact me at (phone number). Unless I am advised in writing that the additional costs required for the single point interchange will be provided by local sources by Friday, August 31, 2007, the department’s engineering staff will resume the design work on the conventional diamond interchange. (Letter is signed by Paul Degges, Chief Engineer)
We appreciate TDOT reviewing all options to the Interchange design and are looking forward to a rapid completion of a successful project.
At this time, we do not have a time frame for project completion.
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