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TDOT contributes to I-69 coalition
Monday, October 25, 2004
KELLY RIMEL for the Dyersburg State Gazette
Dyersburg Mayor Bill Revell on Friday accepted a $100,000 donation from the Tennessee Department of Transportation on behalf of the Interstate 69 Tennessee Coalition. Revell is chairman of the coalition.
Efforts to direct the I-69 corridor through Dyer County have been under way for more than a decade. The proposed I-69 extension would include several counties in West Tennessee: Dyer, Tipton, Lauderdale and Shelby. The interstate already has been completed from the Canadian border at Port Huron, Michigan/Sarnia, Ontario, to Indianapolis, Ind. The route from Indianapolis to Kentucky has been decided also, Revell said. The corridor will use the existing Pennyrile Parkway, Western Kentucky Parkway and Purchase Parkway to Fulton. |
 Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely, third from right, presents a $100,000 check to Dyersburg Mayor Bill Revell, right. Attending the presentation are, from left: Senator Mark Norris, Dyer County Mayor Richard Hill, Representative Craig Fitzhugh, Nicely, Representative Phillip Pinion, and Revell.
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The corridor will then stretch from Fulton, Ky., through Union City and Troy to Dyersburg.
In Dyer County, the proposed route will follow the existing U.S. Highway 51 from just south of Troy to the intersection of U.S. Highway 412 and Interstate 155 in Dyersburg. The plan from that point, however, has not been decided.
"We should know (the route), hopefully, by spring," said Revell, who has worked toward the development of I-69 for 15 years. "It will either go east or west of Dyersburg."
The efforts to build the I-69 corridor from Indianapolis to Mexico have involved several states, including Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Indiana.
"It's really taken a cooperative effort between several states," said Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely, who presented the $100,000 check to the I-69 Tennessee Coalition in Dyersburg on Friday. The funding is part of an appropriations bill that goes toward I-69. The donation will be used to keep lobbyists for I-69 at work in Nashville.
"When this is completed, it will provide a link from Indiana all the way to Mexico and bring cities like Dyersburg and Union City closer to international trade," Nicely said.
The possibilities I-69 could provide for West Tennessee are the primary reason politicians from the area have pushed for the corridor. The work toward locating the corridor in West Tennessee has been a bi-partisan effort.
"It will be an absolute lifeblood that brings great things to us," said Rep. Craig Fitzhugh, who attended the presentation ceremony.
Senator Mark Norris, who represents Dyer County, and Reps. Fitzhugh and Phillip Pinion, who share Dyer County, have been instrumental in securing the corridor in Dyer County, Revell said. He also attributed I-69 success to Senators Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander.
"They're big supporters of I-69," he said.
The $100,000 donation from TDOT will help the Tennessee Coalition, Revell said.
"We have to raise $300,000. We could not have carried on without this $100,000," he said. "We're not going to give up. It's going to happen. We're going to see West Tennessee flourish and business and industry spring up along the corridor."
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