Construction crews on the $93 million Nolensville Pike project in Nashville, Tenn., are approximately midway through the projected four-year job, but progress hinges on two very important components.
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"It's very dependent on getting some of the utilities moved, which they're making a really big push on now," said Greg Woerdeman, team lead, District 37 Construction of the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). "A big challenge of this project is some of the environmental commitments that are on it due to the Nashville Crayfish. There's only a certain time where they can work in the streams, and if they can get a lot of that work done during when we're allowed to for those permits, that will really help our project. If not, they're going to have to work elsewhere."
The contract was awarded to Civil Constructors in November 2023 with work getting under way in December of the same year. The 4.4-mi. project, Phase 1, includes reconstruction and widening and is designed to reduce congestion, improve safety and accommodate the growth expected in the coming years.
The existing road is primarily two lanes, Woerdeman said. The project will widen the road from two to five lanes which will include two 12-ft. travel lanes in each direction; a 12-ft. center turn lane; 10-ft. paved shoulders; bike lanes; curb and gutter; and 5-ft. sidewalks on each side.
Due to the size of improvements on the roadway, SR 11, TDOT has split the project into two phases. This first phase covers the roadway from north of Mill Creek to near SR 254 in southern Davidson County.
"This area of Davidson County has experienced rapid growth in recent years, and the current facility does not adequately accommodate the existing volumes," according to the TDOT website. "The route has a base year 2023 average daily traffic of 20,457 vehicles per day and a design year 2043 average daily traffic of 35,994 vehicles per day. The added capacity being provided by this improvement is necessary to maintain operations at an acceptable level of service."
TDOT photo
All the utilities — water, gas, sewer, power and communications — must be moved to make space for the additional lanes, Woerdeman said.
"Everything must be widened, so all the overhead utilities have to be moved to new poles. First, they must put in the new poles, then all the overhead lines must be transferred to the new poles. Some of it is going underground, as well and that is going well."
The utility work started well ahead of the actual project when the utility companies came together for "deconfliction," that is, the agreements determining where the utilities will be moved.
"We always have utility issues when it comes to urban projects," Woerdeman said. "One of the things we'll do is we get all the utilities together and they'll overlay all the plans and where everybody says they are, and then they go through each conflict point and find out a way to work with the other utilities to move their line over, to not affect others as well."
On the ground level, it's a race against time to get in-stream construction completed in the coming months.
"They can only perform in-stream construction between May 31 and October 1 due to the Nashville crayfish," Woerdeman said.
TDOT photo
The Nashville crayfish is a federally protected species.
"Additionally, they are required to sweep the stream prior to and after installing the in-stream diversions needed to build the structures. If the in-stream division is not completed within one hour, the contractor is required to perform an additional sweep. There also are restrictions on staging equipment near streams, wetlands, etc., but we see those on most projects with water features."
Other challenges on the job include the limited right-of-way and traffic management, which is largely being handled by flaggers with some detours in place.
"There's a significant amount of traffic that we have to work with," Woerdeman said. "We have a new alignment. When you're building a new road, and you don't have to really worry about traffic. But on projects like this, we must maintain traffic throughout the corridor and impact motorists as little as possible. Obviously, there's going to be an inconvenience, but we have to reduce that inconvenience as much as we can."
Phase 1 is scheduled for July 2027 completion. Right-of-way appraisals and acquisitions for Phase 2 are under way. CEG
