Long-Awaited Mack Hatcher Project To Get Underway Next Year

FRANKLIN, TN — After years of waiting, Franklin residents will finally see work begin on the northwest quadrant of Mack Hatcher Memorial Parkway in 2018.

The project is included on the Tennessee Department of Transportation's three-year plan for the first time and is scheduled for construction in the first year of the plan.

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Because of the passage of Gov. Bill Haslam's IMPROVE Act — which will phase in an increase to the state's gas tax — and the repayment of money borrowed from the state's road fund, TDOT presented a larger-than-usual three-year plan with promises to fund and begin work on dozens of long-delayed projects statewide.

“The northwest quadrant of Mack Hatcher has been our No. 1 priority for a long time,” Franklin Mayor Ken Moore told The Tennessean. “We anticipated that Mack Hatcher would be on the three-year plan, but we didn’t know that it would be scheduled for construction in the first year of the plan. It’s certainly a culmination of a lot of work on the part of the City of Franklin with TDOT to make sure the importance of the project was noticed.”

Under the IMPROVE Act, four cents will be added to the gas tax on July 1 with penny increases scheduled for 2018 and 2019. Once the increases are in place, the gas tax — which had not been raised in 28 years — will be 27.4 cents per gallon.

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