TN looking to widen Edgemoor Road
The Tennessee Department of Transportation is looking to widen stretches of Edgemoor Road in Anderson County.
First, it plans to widen Edgemoor Road from Tennessee Route 62, also called Illinois Avenue, to Melton Lake Drive, into a four-lane concrete median facility.
TDOT spokesman Mark Nagi said the road was “identified for construction funding” in fiscal year 2027.
Second, TDOT plans to widen Edgemoor from Melton Lake Drive to Tennessee Route 9, also called Clinton Highway, to five lanes. TDOT identified construction funding for that second project for fiscal year 2028.
These state projects affecting Oak Ridge come amid that city’s own work analyzing its roads.
At a meeting earlier this year, the City Council voted to spend up to $40,225 for consulting firm WithersRavenel to study Oak Ridge city streets based on an earlier study from late 2021.
WithersRavenel will develop a pavement preservation plan, which the city can use as a guide to decide what road repairs it should make.
Mayor Pro Tem James Dodson made the motion, and council member Ellen Smith seconded at the January meeting. It passed unanimously.
However, council member Chuck Hope, who owns Chuck’s Car Care Center, expressed some skepticism about using a study from 2021. He said the company needed to look at current conditions “as much as possible.”
“It is a portion of our city’s infrastructure that every day deteriorates,” he said, comparing the constant worsening of roads to going over a waterfall.
“Data points from three years ago don’t take into account the deterioration that has happened in those three years,” he said.