At its Oct. 6 meeting, the Highway Commission discussed an early-stage safety project on Latimer Lane after a Hendersonville resident warned that the intersection of Long Hall Pike and Latimer is unsafe.

Michael Clark, a Hendersonville resident, told the commission, “that really needs to move as quickly as it can through the system,” describing repeated dangerous driving behavior at the intersection.

The discussion mattered because commissioners said the stretch is a major cut-through for local traffic, including school traffic and heavy trucks, raising safety concerns for students and other drivers. Commissioners described the agenda item as informational but important to begin the project planning process.

A commissioner said the project has moved up the priority list after public comment and earlier meetings with Tennessee Department of Transportation representatives. “We had several meetings over this, and TDOT is interested, but we had to bring something to the table,” the commissioner said. The same speaker said the commission has previously put roughly “past $3,000,000 to give us some money to get this thing started and rolling.”

Commissioners described the next steps as advertising a request for qualifications (RFQ), starting survey and design work, and following a process similar to recent bridge projects. The chairman said, “Without objection, we'll suspend the road,” to allow the presentation and discussion to proceed. Commissioners also said the county would likely use county funds for the initial design and survey steps before pursuing further funding or TDOT involvement.

A commissioner noted the safety urgency around school drop-off and pick-up, saying students can sit “in traffic for 20 or 25 minutes” and that heavy trucks present additional risk when drivers attempt to turn from side roads. The discussion emphasized addressing the bottleneck and adding turn lanes as possible design elements; no detailed design or funding commitment beyond the early-step allocation was adopted at the meeting.

No formal vote on a construction contract or final design was taken; the item was presented as information and the commission discussed next steps and coordination with TDOT. Commissioners identified advertising an RFQ and beginning survey and design as the immediate actions to move the project into preliminary engineering.

County staff and commissioners said they expect to follow the standard sequence of RFQ → survey/design → further funding and construction phases, and they signaled continued coordination with TDOT and local contractors. A specific construction timeline was not fixed at the meeting, though one speaker referenced “’26” when asked about timing; that remark was not clarified to a specific year or date.

The commission did not adopt final design decisions or a construction schedule at the Oct. 6 meeting; staff were directed to initiate preliminary procurement and design steps and continue coordination with TDOT.