SPRING HILL, TN – A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Tuesday, September 8, 2020 to celebrate the completion of the Duplex Road widening project, a monumental joint effort between the City of Spring Hill, Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Eutaw Construction Co.
Mayor Rick Graham yielded the honor of making it official by handing giant scissors to the City’s Senior Project Manager, Missy Stahl who, the Mayor remarked, was invaluable to the entire project. Ms. Stahl was joined by the Mayor and City staff, past and present aldermen, State officials and members of the Eutaw Construction Co., all of whom had a hand in this project.
TDOT and FHWA have strict rules and regulations which must be followed in order to keep Federal funding. Ms. Stahl learned to ask before acting. “The key to keeping everything in line to meet TDOT and FHWA regulations was organization,” said Missy. “Also teamwork,” she added, “The teams I have worked with on each phase were outstanding and each of us brought a unique strength to the table. This project could not have been done with only one person’s knowledge base.”
Ryan Cary, Senior Project Manager for the Tennessee Division of Eutaw Construction Co. had praise for the City team. “We have worked with a lot of municipalities over the years and we can’t think of a more solid team than the one in Spring Hill. We thank you for the attitude and understanding it takes to complete a project like Duplex Road.” Mr. Cary added, “You guys were awesome to work with no matter which department we ended up dealing with. Thanks again, and we look forward to working with Spring Hill in the future.”
The Duplex Road widening project stands as the largest, locally managed project in TDOT History. Two hundred and seventeen (217) right-of-way (ROW) acquisitions were negotiated by the City, and TDOT arranged for Ms. Stahl and City Administrator Victor Lay to attend its ROW class in Knoxville and participate in training. Additionally, this project was granted a special burn permit by TDOT to burn three of the houses obtained in the name of the State of Tennessee. The City utilized these controlled burns for training of Spring Hill Fire Department as well as six other area fire departments with 75 firefighters participating.
Duplex Road (SR-247) is a major East-West connector through the City of Spring Hill, providing access to numerous residential developments. Work officially began in August of 2006 to widen the roadway providing for standard-width travel lanes in each direction, center turn lanes, new shoulders, as well as vertical alignment correction. Although the bulk of the work is complete, there is an end-of-job punch list of final details that must be completed this fall.Until each item on the list is complete the speed limit will remain at 25 mph and then return to the previous speed limit of 35 mph.
