Tennessee tabs road-building group for $9B toll lanes project

Transportation Department officials and Gov. Bill Lee endorsed the bid because the group said it would make nearly $25 billion in payments over half a century, in contrast to one bidder that asked for a subsidy to start the job and two other bidding groups that offered only about $7 billion in concessions.

Officials said the amount the vendor is agreeing to pay the state has no relation to the fees it will charge. The group is taking on the risk that it will be able to collect enough in road-use fees to pay for construction and state concessions and still turn a profit.

Lee hailed the proposal as the largest and “most valuable” “choice” lane road building project in the nation and called it the new way to construct highways in Tennessee. 

Under the agreement, DriveTN will pay the state $1.5 billion up front and fund the project itself, then make the rest of the concessions over five decades as it collects payments from motorists who choose to use the lanes. Officials did not say how much might be charged but said it would depend on the amount of traffic and time of day.

Work on the road is expected to start in 2027 and take up to eight years for completion, though some portions of the toll lanes will be ready sooner, officials said.

Lawmakers challenge board control over “toll lanes”

“Not only will these partners fund 100% of the construction costs for these ‘choice’ lanes, but they’re going to offer the state an unprecedented concession payment that will provide billions of additional dollars beyond the project’s cost,” Lee said. The money is supposed to be used to improve the project’s corridor and to provide transportation funding statewide. 

Lee issued an executive order Wednesday creating a board of lawmakers and officials that will oversee toll-lane projects.

The legislature passed the Transportation Modernization Act in 2023, paving the way for the new funding and construction mechanism designed to look at major interstate-type projects over the next 25 years.

Toll lanes, which state officials refer to as “choice” lanes, also could extend through Murfreesboro along I-24 and part of I-840, farther out I-40 toward Lebanon and from downtown Nashville up the I-65/24 corridor. Those segments will have to go through more negotiations, officials said.

State officials could not say how many homes would have to be torn down to make way for lanes on both sides of I-24, but they said DriveTN’s plan is based on keeping that number as low as possible.

In its proposal, DriveTN agreed to avoid the Pan-Asia Supermarket in southeast Nashville and Noble Place Townhomes, which have been points of contention, in addition to eliminating the need to rebuild the Hickory Hollow Parkway bridge.

State Rep. John Ray Clemmons, a Nashville Democrat, told the board constituents and business owners in his South Nashville district oppose the project because of its impact on homes and neighborhoods, especially when construction forces traffic to detour.

Clemmons called Lee’s initiative a “boondoggle” and said he hasn’t received any data from the state showing how the “toll” lanes will reduce traffic. He said Nashville residents want passenger rail and more public transit, not toll lanes for which motorists are paying $20 to $47 in other states.

“This is not modernization. This is wrong,” he said.

During a public hearing, Nashville resident Gerald Stankevich said he has seen the “tsunami coming in slow motion” because it could affect his house, yet he has received conflicting signals from the Department of Transportation. If he had known he was going to have to put up with road construction for nearly a decade, Stankevich said he wouldn’t have bought his house. He encouraged the state to consider using “inverse condemnation,” a process in which the property owner sues the state to seek a fair price for the value of the property, instead of eminent domain in which the state sues the property owner.

Smyrna resident Connie Casha, who drove the I-24 corridor to work in Nashville from 1994 to 2016 and suffered through two widening projects, said the state is looking at the problem incorrectly.

“We’re saying we don’t have enough roads. I’m saying we have too many cars. We need to be looking at alternative transportation issues,” Casha said.

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