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Exit 1 needs more infrastructure

By David W. Shelton | November 22, 2006 | Print This Post

 

david-mug-small.jpgGreetings from Northeast Clarksville. We’re proud to be a part of our community, and even more proud to host The Great Escape 16 theatre. Exit 1 is soon to be the direct access point to the Wings of Liberty Museum on Fort Campbell, with a huge widening project underway on Tiny Town Road to access the thousands of tourists who are sure to visit the best museum of military aerial technology outside of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Washington, D.C.

Therein lies the problem. Exit 1 is growing faster than the infrastructure there can handle. It’s been a quiet growth until recently. Now, it’s nearly impassible from 4:00 to after 6:00. There are only two lanes of traffic which must handle thousands of cars.

Our current representative on City Council is Wayne Harrison. His notable quotes recently range from the benign to the ridiculous (“We were mad that St. Bethlehem was annexed to Clarksville, and we’re still mad about it”). He must be so mad that he’s forgotten that the Northeast area of town is in dire need of improvement of its infrastructure.

Trenton Road is bad enough. The intersections at Tiny Town Road and Tylertown Road are even worse. Only the intersection of Trenton and Tiny Town is controlled by a stoplight. Has anyone tried to go through this quagmire during the evening rush hour lately? If you have, then let’s all say it together, “Man, I wish they’d put a stoplight here…”

The planning commission should be slapped for every house that has been approved in the last five years. Developers have been given free reign to expand the residential community here, and what do we have to offer? A grocery store? No. A casual-upscale restaurant? Nope. Retail shopping? Diddley-squat. Entertainment? A movie theatre…a big one. Great… more traffic.

And what’s on the other side of the interstate? Houses. Lots and lots of houses. And a lot more are coming. So far, there are but three businesses there. A gas station, a day-care center, and, yippee… a liquor store! Wow, we always need more of those. Maybe so we can take the edge off from fighting that atrocious traffic.

I’m writing this to everyone who lives in the Trenton/Tiny Town/Tylertown area. Please get involved. Our corner of this great city has been neglected long enough. We must demand better roads and better traffic control. Anything less will just be more frustration.

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About David W. Shelton

    Posts by David W. Shelton are copyright (c)2006, 2007, 2008 by the author. All rights reserved. David W. Shelton is a writer, speaker and activist in Clarksville, and serves on the Clarksville Human Relations Commission. His passions include film and complete equality for all people, and he has worked in various capacities to work toward this goal. He is currently an illustrator, graphic designer, trainer, and is the owner of Imagine Media Solutions. He is an Adobe® Certified Instructor in Photoshop®.

    Web Site: http://www.skippingtothepiccolo.com/

    Email: dwshelton@att.net

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2 Responses to “Exit 1 needs more infrastructure”

  1. robgilm Says:
    December 18th, 2006 at 2:10 am

    I contacted the city street department about this issue and they assured me that they are “very aware of this situation”. Tiny Town Road and Trenton Road are both state highways and fall under the jurisdiction of TDOT. Jim Durrett said that they have requested a “warrant study for the installation of a traffic signal at the west bound off-ramp of I-24″ and that this request was submitted over two months ago. He also stated that he hasn’t recieved a response from TDOT. I think we need to redirect our efforts to get this problem fixed to TDOT.

    Commissioner’s Office
    James K. Polk Building
    505 Deaderick Street
    Suite 700
    Nashville, TN 37243-0349
    Phone: 615.741.2848
    Fax: 615.741.2508
    Email: TDOT.Comments@state.tn.us

    Winston Gaffron
    Region 3 Engineering Director (Nashville)
    615.350.4300
    Winston.Gaffron@state.tn.us

  2. David W. Shelton Says:
    December 18th, 2006 at 8:13 am

    Thanks for the tip, Rob! I’ve written Mr. Gaffron this morning. Let’s keep it up!

    David

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