TDOT may shut down half of I-440 for months to expedite repair process

Nashvillians singing the Interstate 440 blues could change their tune sooner than expected.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation is mulling the option of an expedited repair process — cutting down the time of the long-planned reconstruction project from three years to less than one — but it won't happen without some major closures taking place.

From April: Good news, Nashville drivers: Your I-440 commute should get smoother soon.

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On Wednesday, the department announced that it will also accept proposals from contractors to close roughly half of I-440 at a time, rather than reducing the entire stretch to two lanes, in order to complete the project in a year or less.

"Preliminary traffic models have shown that reducing I-440 to two lanes in each direction for a three year period would result in near-constant heavy traffic queues on I-440 and dramatically increase congestion on surrounding routes," TDOT said in a statement.

The original plan was to follow traditional construction methods of closing lanes along the entire road, requiring an estimated 36 months to complete.

If contractors propose design and construction timelines using the segmented closure plan, the work must be done in two segments, with only segment being closed at a given time.

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TDOT has determined that the first segment would be I-440 East and West from the I-65 junction to the !-24 junction, while the second segment would be from the I-65 junction to the I-40 junction.

The first segment closure could take place as early as January and last around three months, followed by the second closure, which the state would require to reopen to traffic by mid-November 2019.

TDOT says it will assess a penalty of $400,000 per day against the contractor if the November 2019 reopening date isn't met under a segmented closure plan.

Contractors must submit their final proposals by July. TDOT plans to award the I-440 reconstruction contract in August and have construction begin by November.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.