Group picks route for Corridor J across Cumberland Plateau

The Citizens Resource Team was charged with selecting a route from Interstate 40 in Cookeville up to Kentucky that would use existing highways of sufficient quality and the potential for economic development along its way, according to a news release from the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

From I-40, the route will follow Route 111 north through Livingston, then along Route 52 to Celina, to Route 53, passing west of Dale Hollow Lake before crossing into Kentucky at Peytonsburg, Ky.

Route 52 is already a four-lane highway which will need no improvements, officials said.

South of I-40, Corridor J’s route has already been laid out from Cookeville along Route 111 south to Route 127, which leads into Chattanooga.

Gov. Phil Bredesen said Wednesday that the new northern route will help link Celina, which is the seat of Clay County, to the interstate to improve economic and community development.

Corridor J was one of several proposed TDOT projects conceived under former Republican Gov. Don Sundquist’s administration.

When Bredesen, a Democrat, came into office in 2003, he and Transportation Commissioner Jerry Nicely called for some of the more controversial projects to be studied further by the University of Tennessee Center for Transportation Research.

The citizens advisory group comprised officials and residents of Clay, Jackson, Overton, Pickett, Putnam and White counties.

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