Posted: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 2:00 pm

Drivers in the Gateway area of Murfreesboro may see a break in traffic soon.

Murfreesboro City Council will consider approving a bid of $6,399,775 to Charles Deweese Construction of Kentucky to make road improvements to Manson Pike, Fortress Boulevard and Gresham Lane in the near future.

The roads will be improved to ease traffic and perhaps make it easier to get onto Medical Center Parkway/Mason Pike.

“A significant increase in traffic growth in this area and the intersection’s proximity to the interchange at Medical Center Parkway/I-24 necessitated the combining of these routes into one intersection,” Murfreesboro City Engineer Chris Griffith said.

The changes will result in a realigned Gresham Lane intersecting Manson Pike farther west of the I-24/Medical Center Parkway interchange and a traffic light.

The proposed realignment is described as follows, including a 6-foot green space, 5-foot right of way for future sidewalks and dedicated turning and transition lanes:

- From the existing Mason Pike at the Interstate 24 interchange to the existing Fortress Boulevard at the entrance of Puckett Crossing will be widened to five lanes;

- The existing Fortress Boulevard from the entrance to Puckett Crossing to Blaze Drive to five lanes;

- From the existing Gresham Lane near the east boundary of the Hale-Kirby property to the existing Mason Pike at Overall Creek to five lanes;

- From the intersection of the existing Gresham Lane and the proposed realigned Manson Pike to the proposed intersection of the existing Manson Pike and the proposed realigned Gresham Lane.

Proposed improvements to Fortress Boulevard are in the final design phase and should be bid out in the first part of 2010.

•••

Homeowners whose property was damaged by the Good Friday Tornado may be getting new trees thanks to the Murfreesboro Water and Sewer Department.

The city has oak and river birch saplings left over from the November volunteer Greenway replanting and MWSD doesn’t want the trees to go to waste.

“Staff believe that the best use of the extra tress is distribution to residents whose stream banks were damaged by the tornado of April 10,” MWSD’s Darren Gore wrote in a letter to the city council.

If approved, the trees will be given first to homeowners with frontage on Sinking Creek, Bushman Creek and West Fork Stones River for replanting near the waterways. Should any trees remain, MWSD will give them to any other interested Murfreesboro homeowners.

Public hearings:
• Ordinance 09-O-41
Deals with floodplain zoning amendments suggested by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to update the City’s floodplain regulations to be consistent with the requirements of the Flood Insurance Program.

• Ordinance 09-O-42
Determines whether to revise the existing special improvement district known as the US 41-Florence Road Sanitary Sewer Assessment District, as shown by the designated area in the map revision here.

•  Ordinance 09-OZ-43
Considers a proposed amendatory Ordinance 09-OZ-43 amending the Zoning Ordinance and the Zoning Map of the City of Murfreesboro to rezone the territory indicated on the map from Residential Multi-Family Sixteen (RM-16) District to Local Commercial (CL) District.

• Ordinance 09-OZ-44
To modify the conditions of the Planned Residential Development (PRD) District to remove required landscaping between Aurora Place and Everbrite Pointe Section I and the garage requirement for 16 condominiums, as well as add a minimum width requirement for driveways, increase building separation and replace the privacy fence along Joe B. Jackson Parkway with a three rail fence. View the map.

• Ordinance 09-OZ-45
To rezone the territory indicated on the map from Planned Commercial (PCD) District to Commercial Fringe (CF) District.

• Ordinance 09-OZ-46
To rezone the territory indicated on the map from Single-Family Residential Fifteen (RS-15) District to Commercial Fringe (CF) District.