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Somerville Beltway


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Has anyone else heard about the proposed Beltway in Somerville? I've never been to Somerville but I know that Fayette county is the fastest growing county in TN. Is it really that big? If this gets connected to TN 385, Memphis may become as sprawled as Detroit. :blink:

http://www.fayettecountyreview.com/article...news/news02.txt

and the proposed beltway's route

http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/somerville/

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Has anyone else heard about the proposed Beltway in Somerville? I've never been to Somerville but I know that Fayette county is the fastest growing county in TN. Is it really that big? If this gets connected to TN 385, Memphis may become as sprawled as Detroit. :blink:

http://www.fayettecountyreview.com/article...news/news02.txt

and the proposed beltway's route

http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/somerville/

This is the first I've seen/heard of this. Actually, it's fairly common to build these now around smaller towns and, as you can see from the article, they tend to be controversial. Businesses in the town square fear that the diverted traffic will hurt them.

The beltway itself looks to be only 5 miles in diameter, and its western edge about 15 miles from TN 385 (future I-269).

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This is the first I've seen/heard of this. Actually, it's fairly common to build these now around smaller towns and, as you can see from the article, they tend to be controversial. Businesses in the town square fear that the diverted traffic will hurt them.

The beltway itself looks to be only 5 miles in diameter, and its western edge about 15 miles from TN 385 (future I-269).

coincidentaly heres an article from todays CA about 385

http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/local_...4339432,00.html

i hope it doesn't become a loop like the one in atlanta like the guy says in the article .

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Doesn't sound out of line to me, esp. with all the future potential growth Somerville will get in the coming years. This one though would be four-lane all the way around it and be probably the biggest.

In fact lots of towns in West Tennessee have already gotten these to one degree or another, mainly under Gov. McWherter. Look on a map of Martin, TN for the best example, it by far IMO has the most clear and gigantic by-pass loop ( formed by TN 22- which is closed access interstate grade, but connected with TN 43 and TN 216 to make the full loop) of just about any town I've seen for its size. Its amazing! LOL Its useful though, esp. if you traveling on TN 22. The proposed Somerville by-pass would be equally as large and closed access completely all the away around the loop, which would be different from Martin's.

Click here to see a map on via Yahoo:

http://maps.yahoo.com/maps.py?&addr=&csz=Martin,TN

Use google maps for another few of it, although on city view the map for some reason labels all the bypass(s) as US 45, which in only congruent with part of TN 43, but once you zoom in it is labeled correctly. The BEST THING though on google is to look at it on satellite, to truly see how big it is! So check it out. :thumbsup:

Huntingdon also has a huge loop, all limeted access with stop signs at each road crossing. I don't know what was going on when they built it. I would recommend all those interested look at it on google too, in particular on satellite mode.

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I think the by-pass is not always the best solution for moving traffic through a city. It costs way too much to buy land for a new alignment and construct a completely new road that is not suited for pedestrians. You almost always see the big box stores develop and suck the economic life out of the downtown. In the long run, by-passes and the associated development only create more traffic and congestion.

I would much rather see communities look at routing traffic over the existing road network by using that money to upgrade the existing parallel roads and using intelligent transportation technology to route the traffic over the least congested road. The travel time through town and vehicular delay with this alternative would be less than the by-pass alternative, I suspect.

As a stream becomes multi-channeled when it flows through flat land, it still carries the same amount of water on its course. A muti-channeled road network (braided stream approach) would accomplish the same.

By upgrading the downtown, retail area road network to include turn lanes, parking, new sidewalks, efficient traffic lights and needed geometric improvements to facilitate traffic flow, more pedestrian traffic would be encouraged. In conjunction with proper zoning to encourage mixed-use building construction (i.e.; retail on first floor, offices on second floor, housing on third) a livable, walkable community could be built that still serves the needs of the community and provides jobs. If you build such a community, I believe people will come.

The perfect street would look something like this;

Fall05020.jpg

Unfortunately, too many of our City fathers see opportunity to make money off the sprawl and reject alternatives to strengthen their Cities existing economic core. Until citizens stand up a present the reasonable alternatives, our communities will continue to become sprawling, congested look alike places with no true heart. I see it happening all over the state to the point where you can't tell if you are in Athens or Cleveland or in Dyersburg or Union City.

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Has anyone else heard about the proposed Beltway in Somerville? I've never been to Somerville but I know that Fayette county is the fastest growing county in TN. Is it really that big? If this gets connected to TN 385, Memphis may become as sprawled as Detroit. :blink:

http://www.fayettecountyreview.com/article...news/news02.txt

and the proposed beltway's route

http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/somerville/

Fayette county is not the fastest growing county in TN, Rutherford county is.

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The Southern leg of the proposed Somerville Beltway is part of a Statewide effort to improve traffic flow along Highway 64 between Memphis and I-75. They have spent numerous years widening the Highway and have also been building bypasses around higher traffic cities and cities (such as Somerville) which cause a significant reduction in speed over a few miles. There is quite a bit of info about the Highway 64 project statewide on TDOT's website.

Widening is occuring or will occur between Bolivar and Selmer, East of Savannah to West of Waynesboro, East of Waynesboro to West of Pulaski, East of Fayetteville to West of Winchester.

Bypasses have already been constructed around:

Selmer (actually part of Hwy 45 bypass)

Winchester

Pulaski

Fayetteville

In addition to Somerville, I believe bypasses are in the works for Lawrenceburg and Bolivar.

As for the north loop of the Somerville Beltway, it is likely being built for economic development. Somerville has long been devoid of economic development and population growth. Fayette County has been growing at a high rate for 15 or more years, but that growth has been limited to the Hickory Withe area and Oakland, even though Somerville wasn't much further from Memphis and was already the larger town and the county seat. Both the Oakland and Hickory Withe communities are along Highway 64, with Hickory Withe being on the Shelby-Fayette line and Oakland being further east. Somerville is the next town down Highway 64. The first residential developments in or around Somerville for a long while have taken place only in the past 3 or 4 years. I think there have only been 4 or 5 even in that time. I believe this is being done to provide more infrastructure and incentive for landowners to sell or develop their land as an economic boost to Somerville and Fayette County. Additionally, Fayette-Ware High School and at least one other public school for Fayette County are located close to where this Beltway will intersect with TN 76 (at 12 o'clock on that map on the TDOT link). This would also provide improved access to the schools and some traffic alleviation on a 2-laned TN 76.

I also don't think bypasses are the best solutions, but they can do some good in certain situations. Just like in every major city, many people tend to migrate to the outlying areas and surrounding counties. DeSoto in MS is the hot option in the Memphis metro. And although Tipton and Crittenden both are more populous than Fayette, I believe more people prefer Fayette County. The problem has been infrastructure, access, and (part of the case of Somerville) lack of land for sale--people being unwilling to sell land for development. Fayette County is preferred because of its proximity to Shelby County growth (Cordova, Collierville, Arlington) and I-40. Tipton is further from Memphis, Memphis growth, and has no interstate access.

I may have gotten off-topic, but I hope it shows how Fayette (including Somerville) is where growth is to occur and that the Beltway is part of the State, County, and City leaders' plan to facilitate and promote growth in and around Somerville.

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Fayette county is not the fastest growing county in TN, Rutherford county is.

Actually, according to the Census Bureau's numbers from 2000-2004, Rutherford's growth rate is 15.4% and Fayette's is 16.7%. Rutherford has had the most growth number-wise, but not percentage-wise. So, Fayette is the fastest growing county in TN according to the Census's figures.

^Beat me to it

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