TN.gov Newsroom

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) will be receiving approximately 700 tons of salt tomorrow at its regional maintenance facility located just off Centennial Boulevard in Nashville. Multiple shipments of salt will be arriving between 8:00 a.m. and Noon.

 

In addition to the salt deliveries, there will be photo & video opportunities to show equipment and other aspects of TDOT’s winter weather operations.

 

 

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely and Governor’s Highway Safety Office Director Kendell Poole will join state and local law enforcement officials and victims of impaired driving on Wednesday, December 3 at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel to remember the 390 people killed in impaired driving incidents in Tennessee in 2007. The event will mark the beginning of National Drunk and Drugged Driving (3D) Prevention Month in Tennessee. In 2007, 390 Tennesseans and 12,998 people nationwide died in alcohol-related crashes involving a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher. The Governor’s Highway Safety Office and law enforcement officials have this holiday message: Whether you’ve had way too many or just one too many, it’s not worth the risk of killing yourself or someone else: Booze It and Lose It.

 

NASHVILLE — As part of the effort to StopLitter™ in Tennessee, Governor Phil Bredesen and TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely today awarded $4,642,382 in litter grant funds to all 95 counties in Tennessee.

 

“Each year volunteers pick up around 25 million pounds of roadside litter in Tennessee alone,” said Bredesen. “Litter is an eye-sore, it’s costly to clean up and can be harmful to our environment, but it’s totally preventable. These funds will be used by counties across the state to organize their pick-up efforts and conduct educational campaigns to teach children and adults about the importance of keeping Tennessee beautiful.”

 

For more information on each individual county’s litter grant award visit the TDOT web site at http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/news/2008/littergrant.htm and click on the appropriate county link for more information or follow the links at the bottom of this release.

 

 

NASHVILLE – If you have ideas on how to improve one of Tennessee’s most important transportation corridors, here’s your chance to share your vision.  The Tennessee Department of Transportation is embarking on a corridor feasibility study to identify improvements for the 160 mile Interstate 75 corridor extending from the Georgia State Line to the Kentucky State Line.   The study will include a series of public meetings along the I-75 corridor beginning in December 2008.

 

NASHVILLE -The Tennessee Department of Transportation will halt all construction work requiring lane closures on Tennessee interstates and state highways beginning at noon on Wednesday, November 26 in anticipation of increased Thanksgiving holiday travel.
 
TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely has informed all of the department’s crews and contractors to stop all road construction work requiring lane closures beginning at noon on Wednesday, November 26 through the early morning hours of Monday, December 1, 2008.  

 

NASHVILLE – Governor Phil Bredesen announced today that the state of Tennessee will provide $1.7 million in Safe Routes to School funds to ten Tennessee municipalities for projects aimed at increasing walking and biking to school among middle and elementary school children.  A complete list of communities receiving grants can be found at the bottom of this release.  The Safe Routes to School program is a statewide initiative designed to make bicycling and walking to school a safer, more appealing and healthier alternative for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. 
 

NASHVILLE – Media crews working along the side of the roadway must wear federally approved safety apparel beginning Monday, November 24 according to a new U.S. Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regulation. The new federal regulation requires all workers within a federal-aid highway right-of-way to wear high-visibility safety apparel. FHWA has stated that the new regulation does apply to the media. According to FHWA, this regulation seeks to make those working on, or in close proximity to, highway traffic or construction equipment more visible in an effort to reduce injuries or fatalities. 

 

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Department of Transportation announced today that it will be closing the Interstate 55 southbound ramp to Mallory Avenue on Sunday, November 16, 2008 for paving operations. The closure will be in place from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. Southbound traffic needing to exit at Mallory Avenue will be detoured to Horn Lake Road (Exit 8) and redirected to use the I-55 northbound exit at Mallory Avenue, which will remain open.

 

 

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – The Tennessee Department of Transportation advises that I-24 East in Chattanooga will be temporarily closed from mile marker 178 to mile marker 179.5 for concrete repairs this weekend.  The closure begins Friday, November 14, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. EST and will end by 6:00 a.m. EST on Monday, November 17.  The area where the repairs will occur is near the I-24/US-27 split in downtown Chattanooga.