Nashville Mayor Megan Barry announced on Wednesday a plan to improve nearly a dozen intersections across the county.
Improvements at the DB Todd Boulevard/Albion Street and Neelys Bend Road/Cheyenne Boulevard intersections will begin within the next two months. 11 other intersection improvement plans will be announced in the coming weeks.
"When our intersections don't function well, either for our pedestrians or buses or bicyclists or cars, we lose something that's really essential to our life and our city," Mayor Barry said.
At the DB Todd Boulevard intersection, the plan is to re-pave the roads, add countdowns to pedestrian signals and improve traffic light technology. In Madison, the plan is to add the beginnings of a bike lane, stop lights and sidewalk expansions.
"We want Nashville to be safe, and we want our residents and visitors to be able get around efficiently no matter how they travel," Public Works Director Mark Macy said.
Officials said they wanted to improve the intersections in Madison and North Nashville first because of the high number of crashes there. Three years ago, a little girl was killed in the Neelys Bend area while trying to cross the road.
NewsChannel5 found that, in the last five years, there have been 20 crashes reported near that intersection. Nearly half of those happened in front of Neelys Bend Elementary School.
"At every intersection where there has been a crash, we need to figure out what we need to be doing today to prevent it from happening again," the Mayor added.
Each project is expected to take between 3 to 6 months and cost between $500,000 and $1 million.
