As the State Road 46 road work is winding down, attention will shift to Hawthorne Drive.
The town-maintained road, which leads to the IGA, McDonald’s, YMCA, senior apartment complexes and other high-traffic buildings, will be widened to three lanes. It starts at 46 East and ends in a T at Willow Street.
Nashville Utility Coordinator Sean Cassiday said last week that he didn’t have a firm date yet for when it’s going to happen. He’d heard back from all utility companies except one about moving the lines and boxes they needed to move, which is why he couldn’t be sure that the road work would start in September. “Let’s put it this way: We’re hoping,” he said.
In addition to making the road three lanes wide for its entire length, the original idea had been to widen Hawthorne’s intersection with 46 East so that a dedicated turn lane could be added for drivers wanting to exit Hawthorne and go right toward Columbus. That won’t be happening because it cost too much, Cassiday said.
However, a new sidewalk will be added along the McDonald’s side of Hawthorne, he said. There’s already a sidewalk at Hawthorne Hills apartments on that side of the road. “Creative striping” also will be added to help people cross the road, he said.
Approximately four trees will probably need to be taken out on the east side of Hawthorne to widen the road and new ones will be put in, he said.
Not much will happen with the west side of Hawthorne, except that the sidewalk and entrance at the laundromat likely will be changed. “It’s not ADA compliant, so we’ll move the entrance and do like a bike trail through there and a crosswalk,” he said.
Hawthorne will not be completely shut down; the crew will work one lane at a time, Cassiday said. When work isn’t actively under way, the plan is to try to open the whole road whenever possible, he added.
“They want to be in and out of there in no more than two weeks,” he said.
This project, estimated to cost about $104,000, is being funded 75 percent by the state’s Community Crossings grant program and the rest by the town. Cassiday applied for this project during the 2017 grant cycle.
