The Tennessee North Rural Planning Organization (RPO) meets on Thursday the 13th of December to prioritize TDOT funded road projects in the RPOs seven county region. Union County does not have any TDOT projects under construction, although the SR-33 project from the Knox County Line to South of SR-144 was recently moved to the Construction Phase. The SR-61 project from Maynardville to Luttrell North City Limits is in the preliminary engineering phase with engineering underway for the other two phases of the SR-61 project; North of Archer Road to South of Jim Town Road and North David Drive to Tater Valley Road. http://www.etdd.org/services/community-development/transportation/

In June 2018, Representative Dennis Powers confirmed that the SR 33 and SR 61 projects were not on the TDOT three year plan and were not included in the 2019-21 TDOT Multimodal Program Plan. However, significant status change has occurred on the SR-33 and SR-61 projects since passage of a resolution in June 2018 by the County Commission, “Ensuring Public Safety and Paving the Way for Economic Development in Union County”, presented by former 1st District Commissioner Stan Dail. https://www.historicunioncounty.com/article/paving-way-economic-prosper… The outcome of Thursday’s meeting will be project prioritization of 19 projects, to include the SR-33 project and the SR-61 project from Maynardville to Luttrell North City Limits. This RPO prioritization will be used by TDOT in establishing overall transportation funding priorities and moving these important infrastructure projects forward.

Union County has a strong team representing its citizens at the RPO meeting; Union County Mayor Jason Bailey, Maynardville Mayor Marty Smith, Road Commissioner David Cox, County Representative G.W. Rutherford and Municipal Representative Marilyn Toppins. It will be important for them to make credible arguments under the four criteria used to prioritize these 19 projects; Traffic Congestion, Accessibility, Economic Development and Safety. Much of the information needed to support the argument for Union County was included in County Resolution 04 06-11-2018. It will be important for them to also note that not included in the RPO ranking criteria is the requirement in TCA 54-5-102(b) that all county seats should be connected by a four-lane highway to the nearest interstate highway by the best route available. Union County is one of only six counties in the state to not have four-lane access to the nearest interstate highway, access that completion of the SR-33 project would provide. Also not included are details on “Crash Rate” such as the number of fatal crashes, contributory factors or other related issues.

Although TDOT maintains traffic count data on state highways, the City of Maynardville has installed traffic count and speed monitoring stations on SR-33 at either end of the City, and the data from these stations reflect a higher traffic count than TDOT reports. In addition, the TDOT traffic count for SR-61 is obtained prior to where Walkers Ford intersects with SR-61. Inclusion of the Walkers Ford 2017 Average Annual Daily Traffic count of 1,785 vehicles would increase the SR-61 average daily traffic count from 2,510 to 4,295, a 40% increase over the number used by TDOT. The Walkers Ford intersection with SR-61 is arguably the most dangerous intersection in the County, elevating the TDOT Crash Rate on this section of highway to the second highest among the 19 projects being considered at the meeting. The “Ernie Whitson Curve” on SR 61 is one of the most dangerous S curves on any State Route as there are no guardrails protecting motorists from a 40 foot precipice.

What can you do to help? TDOT priorities are based upon many criteria including political interest in the projects under consideration. Union County is fortunate in that its state elected officials, Senator Frank Niceley and Representative Dennis Powers, have considerable influence on the funding and priority of these TDOT projects. YOU can let them know that these projects are important to Union County by sending them an e-mail. An example constituent e-mail is attached, that you can send to Senator Niceley and Representative Powers, as they work to represent the citizens of Union County in Nashville during the upcoming legislative session. By working together, we can make a difference for Union County.