Page 6 - March-April2021 Vol 38 No 7

NASHVILLE By Brad Winkler, P.E.
Historic Improvements: TDOT’s
I-440 Reconstruction Design-Build

Tennessee’s I-440 is a highway Top: Reconstructed I-440 at
that has provided a critical southern Hillsboro Road Interchange
bypass around the City of Nashville
for more than three decades. It now ©AERIAL INNOVATIONS
has been given a significant upgrade
that provides motorists a roadway with Middle: I-440 at West End.
increased capacity that is safer and Work included replacement
more enjoyable to travel. The public of deteriorated concrete
demanded updates and improvements pavement with asphalt, the
due to safety concerns, and the desire addition of a third lane in each
for an improved ride (given the rapidly- direction and ramp safety
deteriorating condition of the existing improvements.
pavement.)
Project Need & History ©AERIAL INNOVATIONS

The $154.8 million reconstruction Bottom: Crushing Operation for
of I-440, between I-40 and I-24 Rubblized Material
in Nashville, is the single largest
transportation project in the history ©WSP USA
of the Tennessee Department of
Transportation (TDOT). Procured
via the Design-Build (DB) delivery
method, this project served as a focal
point for the recently-passed Improving
Manufacturing, Public Roads &
Opportunities for a Vibrant Economy
(IMPROVE) Act of 2017 (increased fuel
taxes for the first time since 1989) which
requires the completion of 962 critical
transportation projects throughout
Tennessee.

The original “Four-Forty Parkway”
was designed and constructed in the
1980s to address urban congestion
in Nashville that had grown due to a
trucking industry boom. The highway
created a way for traffic to avoid
downtown Nashville.

However, the four-lane highway
was built to accommodate up to
64,000 vehicles per day. Today, the
corridor averages 100,000 vehicles
per day and the eastern terminus was
once ranked the nation’s third worst
freight bottleneck by the American
Transportation Research Institute.

The project just completed involved
reconstruction of 7.6 miles of roadway
and included a full-depth replacement
of deteriorated concrete pavement with

6 TPW March/April 2021