Nolensville Pike Is Getting Rebuilt. The Design Is Being Decided Now.
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When the Mayor's office announced the next wave of Choose How You Move investments, Nolensville Pike was on the list — early design and planning as one of Nashville's two All-Access Corridors.
It has moved a long way since. In June, Choose How You Move and WeGo selected HDR to lead planning and project development for roughly nine miles of Nolensville Pike, from downtown through South Nashville. This phase funds two to three years of work: alternatives analysis, preliminary engineering, 30% concept design, environmental review, and the federal approvals that position the corridor for Capital Investment Grants funding.
"For the first time this century, we're bringing significant improvements to Nolensville Road," Mayor O'Connell said. Sabrina Sussman, the program's chief program officer, was blunter about why: "Nolensville Pike has some of the most pressing safety needs in our corridor network."
16th United will be at the table for it. Julie James, our president, has been appointed to the corridor's Community Advisory Board — a roughly two-year commitment that starts September 17 — which means questions from this neighborhood go into the room where the design gets discussed, not just into a comment form afterward.
Here is why we're writing about it now rather than when the ribbon gets cut. The next two to three years are when this road gets decided — where the stops go, what happens to the sidewalks, how left turns work, which crossings exist, which businesses keep their parking and which don't. Once that's settled, it's engineering. The time to be specific about your block is while somebody is still drawing it.
One thing worth keeping straight, because the two get confused constantly: this is not Choice Lanes. Choice Lanes is TDOT's tolled-lane project on I-24. This is Metro's project on Nolensville Pike itself. Different agency, different road, different timeline.
We'll keep posting as the design work moves, and we'll say plainly when there's a meeting worth showing up to.
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