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TDOT: FHWA FONSI, IJR complete for I‑24 Southeast Choice Lanes, milestones posted
Summary
TDOT said it has a Finding of No Significant Impact from FHWA and an approved interchange justification report for the I‑24 Southeast Choice Lanes project; the FONSI package includes a Section 106 agreement for two historic resources, a biological opinion for the Nashville crayfish, and responses to roughly 800–900 public comments.
Paige Heintzeman, TDOT’s P3 director of delivery, told attendees at the pre‑submittal meeting that the project recently received a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) from the Federal Highway Administration.
"We received a finding of no significant impact approval of the FONSI from our FHWA partners not too long ago," Heintzeman said, describing the FONSI as the latest milestone that advances the I‑24 Southeast Choice Lanes project toward procurement and design.
Heintzeman said the FONSI package follows an approved Environmental Assessment earlier in the year and includes an executed Section 106 memorandum of agreement addressing mitigation for two historic resources identified along the corridor (Mill Creek Baptist Church Cemetery and Rogers manufacturing). She also said the FONSI incorporates an executed biological opinion for the Nashville crayfish and documents public outreach including roughly 800 to 900 formal comments and an April visual‑impacts workshop.
The project limits described at the meeting total approximately 26 miles—about 23 miles on I‑24 plus roughly 3.5 miles of improvements on I‑40 and about 1.3 miles on I‑440—and include improvements that TDOT officials said will be handled through the forthcoming DCOC (design and construction oversight consultant) contract. Heintzeman emphasized these environmental and planning approvals are part of closing the loop on major milestones ahead of commercial and financial close.
