The City has received a Notice to Proceed from the Tennessee Department of Transportation on the alignment of New Canada Road between Interstate 40 and Highway 70. The existing Canada Road will be maintained as a local street.
This will include the environmental study, the Context Sensitive Solution action, including a "Stakeholders" Committee to make recommendations in selecting the alignment, amenities etc.
The first step is selecting an Engineering Consultant and this is proceeding immediately. City Engineer Philip Stuckert expects to have the Consultant selection process completed by the July meeting, so the Board can select a Consultant at (or before) the July meeting and start this phase started shortly after the selection.
This phase includes only the alignment, not the construction plans. The Tennessee Department of Transportation requires that the City contact with a Consultant who is qualified to perform the Environmental Studies for the project and who can lead the Stakeholders in selecting the alignment most sensitive to the land, natural resources, property owners and residents.
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2 comments:
While I realize and understand the importance of creating a better north/south thoroughfare more conducive of the traffic volume now and for the future growth of Lakeland, I have a difficult time understanding how we will be able to maintain a "context sensitive design" with the volume of traffic off of Interstate 40. I understand that this has been a long time in the planning (1990), however, there is not another example of this type of scenario stemming off of an Interstate Highway that feeds directly into residential housing in the $300,000 price range. What concerns me and others in the surrounding path or should I say wake of this proposed plan, could cause a net result of significant decreases in property values. The end result is resident's will have to deal with vacant houses due to a loss of value, marketability and an initial blight of depreciation at the onset. So I would like to raise and challenge everyone to think “outside the box” and consider what our major entry corridor of Lakeland will look and perform and how it will impact our existing residences. We should all ask ourselves, just because this was always the plan back in 1990, does this configuration still fit our needs for now and in the future? Is this the best use of $10mm dollars of a very limited state budget? Would considering an expansion plan to make the current Canada Road the north bound thoroughfare and the New Canada the south bound thoroughfare be better use of these funds while accomplishing the same goals and keeping in harmony with the Context Sensitive Design? For what it is worth but this is the type of “Food for thought” we should charge ourselves with. Just because it was always designed and thought of this way doesn't mean it the right solution for us now. We are about to venture into a major “front door” change and I urge you all to get involved and seriously consider the proposed changes that will endure well-beyond the next generation of Lakeland. It’s not just sticks, bricks, asphalt, concrete and better traffic flow; it’s homes, families and the American dream. It’s Lakeland "where quality is a way of life!"
Lakeland is in very bad need of New Canada Road. It is way past due! The existing Canada Road is simply a small country road designed and built decades ago, many years before Lakeland was even incorporated. The volume of traffic that goes up and down that road these days could not have been envisioned in it's early days. No one at that time could have imagined the suburban sprawl that would eventually wind up at it's doors and the dozens of driveways that now back up directly onto busy Canada Road, resulting from homes constructed since then. The sooner the traffic is diverted to a safer, wider, less winding and more modern road that can better get thru traffic through Lakeland, like New Canada Road will, which will have no individual driveways backing up to it, the safer and better off Lakeland as a whole will be.
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