Hartsville Pike to get a major upgrade

Abbey Nutter, The Lebanon Democrat, Tenn.
·2 min read

Nov. 1—A stretch of Hartsville Pike in Lebanon is getting a major upgrade thanks to a Tennessee Department of Transportation project.

"It's a road widening and realignment project," Lebanon Capital Projects Director Kristen Rice said. "It's taking it from the two-lane road that it is to five lanes, with bike lanes and curbs and gutters and sidewalk. It will carry a much higher volume of traffic but also accommodate other users, like pedestrians and bicyclists."

The $31-million infrastructure improvement project will also extend Hartsville Pike north of Lovers Lane to East High Street.

"I believe this is going to help Lebanon in a couple of ways," Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell said. "One is traffic in that part of town. This is going to really help the people from the northern part of the county into the city to come in a better way. It's going to move the entrance of Hartsville Pike on the bypass further east, a little bit closer to the interstate, and it's going to create the opportunity for more business development in that area."

Bell said that the entrance to the interstate could also help relieve some of the traffic in and around the square.

"Where Hartsville Pike comes out now, it's a two-lane road," Bell said. "The red light intersection there is off center from the road that comes from the other direction. It's a very complicated intersection as far as the single applications and how you handle that. Having the traffic from Hartsville Pike come out on a better road in a different location is really going to clear up the area where it comes out now."

The project is expected to be completed over the next three years.

"Hartsville Pike used to be a two-lane road, very windy, very hilly, very dangerous," Bell said. "Years ago, the state approved the plan to widen the road and make it straighter and safer and also provide a better connector for Hartsville to the interstate."

The multi-phase project began in the middle of Hartsville Pike and grew out from there.

"It's totally a TDOT project," Rice said. "Parts of it are in the city, but we're not managing it. We don't have any funding tied up in it."