Bradyville Pike unsafe, to be improved within year on The Murfreesboro Post

Sidebar Ads

Bradyville Pike unsafe, to be improved within year

Related Articles

City leaders honor former vice mayor

91-year-old man dies in crash

Murfreesboro wins accounting award

New City Council is sworn in

Bratcher serves as vice mayor for final time

Gilley named Rutherford County Republican of Year

Traffic Update: TDOT repaving of Broad Street continues

New faces for City Council, School Board

Election 2012: Murfreesboro School Board

TDOT takes off Easter weekend

View All

By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer

Posted: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 4:28 pm

Bradyville Pike may get a much-needed facelift by this time next year, according to a Murfreesboro Planning Department memo.

The letter from Traffic Director Dana Richardson to Mayor Tommy Bragg and city council members said improvements to the road are needed to make it safer for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists.

“Over the last several months, there have been a number of concerns voiced regarding the safety of the Bradyville Pike roadway segment primarily between Middle Tennessee Boulevard and Minerva Drive,” Richardson wrote.

These community concerns stemmed from the death of a young girl after she was struck by a Rutherford County Sheriff detective’s patrol car last summer.

Following the accident, Murfreesboro Planning staff worked with Tennessee Department of Transportation to complete a safety study of Bradyville Pike between Middle Tennessee and Rutherford boulevards.

“We do these road safety reviews because motorist safety is TDOT’s No. 1 priority,” TDOT spokeswoman BJ Doughty said. “They often find small improvements to make a road safer.”

Which is the case with Bradyville Pike.

The study suggests repaving the road between Middle Tennessee and Minerva, adding 4-foot, paved shoulders for pedestrian and bicycle use, and replacing all traffic-control signs, traffic lights and stop lines on side roads.

The improvements are needed because the study found the stretch of road has a crash rate almost double what the state allows.

During the study period of January 2005 to July 2008, 68 wrecks occurred with two fatalities, one serious injury and 28 minor injury crashes.

Because of the high rate of crashes, the road qualifies for a federal program to increase road safety and accompanying federal funds to pay for the improvements.

Doughty said because of the nature of the improvements, the construction should not take long, depending on whether TDOT crews can complete the work or a contractor has to be hired.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under City, Traffic

Member Opinions:

By: tomatoguy on 3/4/09
You are talking about a major re-furb here. That is not what the TDOT crews are setup to do. They generally do urgent repairs on a small scale. The city should hire contractors but not let them dawdle for years as they have on some projects, notably Samsonite/MT Blvd. Then again, why not get TDOT to hire the contractors and run the project. At least they use on site inspectors.

By: bota on 3/4/09
Great news!

By: willis5038 on 3/4/09
I agree. I grew up close to that area. Its been a long time coming.

By: tnlonestar on 3/5/09
Why not start at S.E. Broad st. & atleast go to Rutherford Blvd.? The way the town has growed it's only better to be ahead of the game.

By: barrettbear on 3/5/09
My, where did all this money come from? It was said in one article that Roger Haley told the department heads to plan on reductions. To, I am like tnlonestar, why not go ahead and do this right and start from Southeast Broad and go to Rutherford. Could not be much harder on traffic, hell, the bridge is out on down the road.

By: mikewest on 3/5/09
"Because of the high rate of crashes, the road qualifies for a federal program to increase road safety and accompanying federal funds to pay for the improvements."

TDOT is doing the work, not the city.