| City Council approves Thompson Lane improvements |
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By: CHRISTIAN GRANTHAM, Post Contributor
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Posted: Friday, May 7, 2010 11:02 am
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The Murfreesboro City Council unanimously approved spending federal stimulus funds to resurface Thompson Lane at its weekly meeting Thursday night. The federal funds will also add a new bike lane.
The road improvements presented by Murfreesboro Traffic Director Dana Richardson will take place on the stretch of Thompson Lane between Northwest Broad Street and Old Fort Parkway.
"I think that will be a good addition to the bike lanes we have on Thompson Lane on the other side of Broad," Richardson told the council. "That is a good addition to the proximity of the Gateway trail, and I look forward to getting that going."
Three companies bid on the federal stimulus project. Hoover Inc. won over LoJac Enterprises and HMA Contractors with a $521,166.90 bid. The bid was under the $569,000 estimate for the roughly 2.1 mile stretch of road.
The work will include milling and resurfacing of the existing road that crosses Medical Center Parkway and re-striping the road to create a new bike lane.
The federal stimulus funds were part of President Barack Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The federal stimulus aimed to put people back to work during one of the worst economic recessions in American history.
In 2009, some local residents protested on the square in Murfreesboro as part of a national "Tea Party" movement angry over federal stimulus spending.
The Thompson Lane road improvements will be funded 100 percent by federal stimulus funds. Richardson told the council that since this was a local street, the federal funds saved the city tremendously.
The road improvement is just one of several areas throughout the county that will benefit from ARRA funds in this manner.
The City Council also discussed ongoing proposals to widen Haynes Drive. Council members wanted to see more time for community input and voted to defer a vote on the project for two weeks.
The council also voted to transfer red-light traffic camera contracts from Traffipax, Inc. to American Traffic Solutions. Traffipax has decided to leave the U.S. market. |
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