Diane Black's plan to complete I-840 loop similar to $1 billion plan shelved in 2003

Joel Ebert | The Tennessean

In her latest campaign video, Republican gubernatorial candidate Diane Black is highlighting her plan to alleviate traffic in Middle Tennessee.

Saying that cross-country trucks are “part of the problem,” the Gallatin-based congressman proposes completing Interstate 840 as part of the solution to alleviate congestion.

“We can send the trucks around the loop to make room for all of us who live here,” she says in the 30-second video.

The ad, dubbed "Lanes Not Trains," touts Black's plan for “speedy construction” and promises no new taxes.

The proposal, which she announced after Nashvillians rejected a $5.4 billion transit plan last month, also includes double-stacked interstates near downtown Nashville.

Double-stacked interstates: Diane Black proposes double-stacked interstates, I-840 extension after Nashville transit defeat

Black's proposal to complete the I-840 loop is not new.

In the 1990s, shortly after the first contract for construction of the southern portion of I-840 was signed, the Tennessee Department of Transportation was authorized to begin studying creating a northern loop.

The loop was slated to connect Interstate 40 with a route that ran from Dickson through Clarksville, Springfield and Gallatin before connecting to Interstate 40 again near Lebanon.

As environmental studies began in 1994, the project was estimated to cost upwards of $500 million, depending on which plan was selected, with construction set to begin at the turn of the century, according to The Tennessean’s archives.

When a draft outlining the environmental impact of the northern loop was released in 1995, TDOT noted that while the proposal would help improve safety and alleviate traffic, it would also displace families and business, increase noise levels, remove “prime and unique” farmland and negatively impact streams, wetlands and floodplains.

As the project was under consideration, TDOT scheduled meetings where residents could review maps and make comments about the proposal, which generated an outpouring of interest among residents.

At hearings in Wilson and Montgomery counties, 1,000 people showed up.

In Burns, which is near Montgomery Bell State Park, more than 200 people packed into a school gymnasium to express opposition.

“This is a tax-eating machine,” one resident said of the project, which at the time was estimated to cost $5 million per mile. At that point, the northern loop was projected to be between 85 and 100 miles.

Related: What are the neighborhood transit centers, and how will they affect neighborhoods?

At a gathering of 300 residents in Springfield, one man worried the proposal would come close to land and a home that’s been on his family's property since the Civil War.

In 2003, then-Gov. Phil Bredesen’s administration halted the northern loop proposal. By then, experts concluded it would cost more than $1 billion.

“Because the majority of the plan did not appear to meet a documented transportation need and lacked meaningful participation from local planners, we are putting 840 North on indefinite hold,” then-TDOT commissioner Gerald Nicely said at the time.

Nicely said any studies of the northern loop would be discontinued with TDOT instead focusing on improving certain travel corridors in the region.

The move came after researchers for an independent University of Tennessee study recommended that TDOT “take a step back.”

The state spent nearly $3 million on engineering, design and corridor studies related to the northern loop.

Although Black’s latest campaign ad vows that no new taxes would be needed to pay for her northern loop proposal, it is unclear how it would be funded.

Black’s campaign did not answer questions about how much she estimated her proposal would cost nor how it would be funded.

Instead, campaign spokesman Chris Hartline reiterated a statement he made after Black initially released her infrastructure and transportation proposal.

“This is a set of proposals to solve the traffic congestion problem in Middle Tennessee that could be done with a combination of federal, state and local funding over time,” he said.

After Nashvillians rejected the transit referendum last month, Black said “billion dollar liberal boondoggles are not the solution.”

Reach Joel Ebert at jebert@tennessean.com or 615-772-1681 and on Twitter @joelebert29.