TDOT reports $61.9B needed for infrastructure needs over the next 5 years
By: Action News 5 Staff
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) presented an inventory report on the infrastructure needs in the state before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday morning.
“The public infrastructure needs inventory is both a product and continuous process, one that has been useful in planning short-term and long-range goals,” said Tyler Carpenter, a research manager for TACIR.
The report shows infrastructure needs over the span of five years between 2020 and 2025. Information is collected from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) as well as state and local government officials.
The report shows a cost of over $61.9 billion to address the state’s total infrastructure needs.
Shelby County’s infrastructure needs make up over $6 billion of the total costs.
The report presented to the Senate committee includes infrastructure projects that begin within the next five years. But some recently announced projects have not been included in the report, such as Blue Oval City, the Ford manufacturing plant that will be located in Haywood County.
“The report you’re seeing now, that information was already collected before that announcement,” said TACIR Executive Director Cliff Lippard. “I anticipate that we’ll be seeing a lot of needs over the next couple of years starting to go into the conceptual, planning design, and even construction phase related to that project.”
The report shows that transportation and utilities happen to be the state’s biggest areas in need of improvements with a total cost of over $34 billion.
Tennessee hopes to cover some of that cost with $8 billion the state is expected to receive from President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. $630 million of the investment would go toward transportation improvements in the state.
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