The City of Dickson is seeking the public’s input in creating an action plan for improving traffic safety on streets and intersections.
Using a $295,000 Safe Streets and Roads for All grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the city has contracted with an engineering consultant to prepare the City of Dickson Safety Action Plan that will present a framework for future projects that could improve road safety.
“The goal of the plan is to reduce or eliminate roadway serious injuries and fatalities,” Mayor Don L. Weiss Jr. said during his annual “State of the City” address at the Dickson County Chamber luncheon on Oct. 21. “The city along with engineering consultant Kimley-Horn began this study in June and are currently working on a safety analysis that includes analysis of a significant amount of crash data involving vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.”
In addition to the statistical analysis, the consultant is seeking input from people who live and drive in the City of Dickson to identify areas of concern.
“While data is important, input from our citizens is critical to ensure this plan addresses the safety concerns of our community, so I am asking you to help us complete this study,” Weiss told the record crowd of more than 125 attendees in the Dickson First Methodist Church Christian Life Center. “You can visit the project website dicksonsafetyactionplan.com to express your concerns or ask questions.”
On the project website, participants can:
• Complete a survey that will help the consultant understand more about how each person uses local roadways;
• Use the interactive map to identify areas of concern, such as intersections where you feel unsafe or somewhere you may have had a close call; and
• Ask questions or leave comments via the e-mail address on the website.
“We greatly appreciate your feedback and look forward to continuing to improve the transportation network within the city,” Weiss said. “Using your input and the traffic data, the consultant will create a plan to serve as the framework for projects to improve road safety.”
In 2012, the Tennessee Department of Transportation developed a Traffic System Management plan designed to reduce travel time from Interstate 40 to the Dickson County Municipal Airport. The plan focused mainly on improving traffic flow on Highway 46 by redesigning intersections with synchronized traffic signals and additional turning lanes.
As part of the TSM, TDOT recommended changes at two intersections but did not include them in the state funding, leaving it up to the city to come up with solutions.
One area of concern was the intersection of Marshall Stuart Drive with Highway 46, for which city requests for traffic signals had been turned down multiple times over the years.
In 2015 the city obtained a State Industrial Access grant to move Marshall Stuart Drive to where it now aligns with Oakmont Drive at a traffic signal and the old intersection was shut down.
The other unfunded recommendation was to find a way to relieve some of the traffic issues at the intersections of Highway 46, East Christi Drive and Gum Branch Road in the area of the Cracker Barrel.
“The problems at East Christi Drive proved to be more difficult to address,” Weiss said. “Several plans met various roadblocks and frustrated our efforts until the decision was made to extend Alexander Drive to Gum Branch Road to provide an alternative route for the increasing volume of traffic.”
After a $3 million project, the extension of Alexander Drive opened in September.
“Not only do we believe it will improve the flow of traffic for area residents and those who use Gum Branch and Lime Kiln roads to get to and from Dickson and Burns and I-40, but we are already seeing activity for additional commercial development in the area,” Weiss said.
While the road is now open, the project is ongoing with modifications coming to the intersection with Gum Branch Road to better accommodate large trucks and changes to the intersection with Highway 46 to add a turning lane and new traffic signals.
In another effort to improve the flow of traffic through and in the city, Dickson is installing the Kimley-Horn Integrated Transportation System (KITS) software that will support and provide real-time monitoring of traffic signals throughout the city.
“Working with Ignite Broadband, fiber lines are being installed to every traffic signal in the city, which will provide functionality control, signal timing analytics and support for the integration of Intelligent Traffic System devices,” Weiss said. “This should provide the data and ability to improve traffic flow throughout the city.”
The City continues to make pedestrian and other improvements in the Downtown Dickson Revitalization project that was launched in 2007.
Phase VI of the project will bring the sidewalk and other improvements to Church Street from East College Street at the newly remodeled Back Alley BBQ to East Rickert Avenue at the site of the former Bell and Crosby Clinic and Dickson General Hospital. A $1.167,334 Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) grant was awarded for Phase VI in 2022 and those plans are currently being reviewed by TDOT.
The city received a $1,365,254 TAP grant for Phase VII in January. It will consist of sidewalk and other improvements on Frank Clement Place and West Railroad Street from Center Avenue at Holland Park to South Charlotte Street at the railroad underpass. A design contract for Phase VII is expected to be presented to the City Council for consideration Nov. 4.
The city is expanding the improvements beyond the downtown area with two TDOT Multimodal Access grants for West College Street. Phase I begins at North Mulberry Street where downtown Phases III and V ended at the old post office and extends to Walker Street with a $1,271,424 grant. West College Street Phase II starts at Walker Street and extends to Polk Avenue with a $1,199,895 grant.
“Those projects are in the design phase and our goal is to extend those improvements all the way to Henslee Drive to connect downtown and Henslee Park,” Weiss said.
Since 2007, the City of Dickson has received seven TAP grants for downtown improvements totaling $8,130,334.84 and two Multimodal Access grants for West College Street improvements totaling $2,471,319, for a total of $10,601,653.84, with $2,781,695.63 (26 percent) in local funds and the remaining $7.8 million in state grants.
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