Nashville is ready to build back its roads and infrastructure stronger | Opinion – Tennessean

Harold Love Jr. and Faye DiMassimo, Guest Columnists Published 11:23 a.m. CT June 14, 2021 | Updated 11:24 a.m. CT June 14, 2021

North Nashville resident Keisha Gardner Beard is excited for the proposed Interstate 40 Cap in North Nashville. Nashville Tennessean

We have a plan to come back stronger, right here in Nashville. Lets use the transportation dollars President Biden is putting on the table to pay for it.

America is talking a lot about how to come back, stronger than before.

After a grueling year, were asking ourselves: how do we create communities that are more resilient and work for everyone?

A major part of that answer is found in our transportation strategy.

Transportation is a powerful influencer in peoples lives.

Our roads and bridges take us to work and family.

Bike lanes and buses prevent further pollution of our communities and offer more options to connect to the places we want and need to go.

And construction projects put our contractors and tradesfolk to work.

In other words, what we build, where we build, and how intentional we are about building it can lift communities up or let them down.

A car travels across the D.B. Todd Jr. Boulevard bridge over Interstate 40 Friday, June 11, 2021 in Nashville, Tenn. Metro Nashville wants to build a cap above the interstate to "stitch together"communities north and south of I-40. When the interstate was constructed in the late 1960s many North Nashville residents were upset how the highway split the neighborhood in two.(Photo: George Walker IV / The Tennessean)

With the INVEST in America Act as a core piece of President Bidens American Jobs Plan, the House has called for a $547 billion investment in our nations infrastructure. The INVEST Act pours resources into the nations surface transportation assets to also create jobs and tackle the climate crisis.

Earlier this month, we traveled with Mayor John Cooper to Washington to advocate for bringing those federal dollars home.

Nashville has a plan to build more resilient, better connected infrastructure.

And we would begin in North Nashville.

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In 1967, the U.S. Department of Transportation built the I-40 Freeway through this area. This concrete python created a heat island in a beautiful community, suffocated a thriving business and music district, and forced nearly 1,400 people out of their homes.

Using INVEST dollars, we would reconnect the community by expanding Dr. D.B. Todd, Jr., Boulevard over I-40 into a 3.4-acre, publicly owned cap and connector.

Just fewer than 2,300 residents would be within a ten-minute walk of this pedestrian platform, which would feed into Nashvilles greenway system and connect to the incredible Historic Black Colleges and Universities in the area.

Residents and business owners of North Nashville would design what the top of the connector looks like. It could house public amenities, such as a park or community center, pedestrian connections, and celebrations of the areas history.

This project would help reduce air and noise pollution in the area. It would also bring additional safety improvements to a nearby interchange known as Truckers Curve, where 24 truck-related crashes occurred in 2019.

The star marks the location of a proposed cap over Interstate 40 that would reconnect two neighborhoods separated by the highway.(Photo: 2021 INFRA Application, City of Nashville)

We have a powerful, overdue opportunity on I-40.

Harold Love Jr.(Photo: Dawn Majors)

We also have a Metro Transportation Plan to make 1,961 other traffic and multimodal improvements in 300 neighborhoods across Davidson County.

That plan includes a traffic management center, where well use smart-city technology to better sync traffic signals and address congestion on our busiest corridors.

It calls for a local department of transportation, to consolidate everything Nashville does in transportation for quicker, accountable, more cost-effective delivery including more sidewalks.

Faye DiMassimo(Photo: Submitted)

We have a plan to come back stronger, right here in Nashville. Lets use the transportation dollars President Biden is putting on the table to pay for it.

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State Rep.Harold Moses Love, Jr., P.h.D., is the pastor of Lee Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, State Representative for the TN House District 58 and vice president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

Faye DiMassimo is the senior advisor for transportation and infrastructure to Nashville Mayor John Cooper. She has 40years of multimodal planning, development, and delivery experience in the public and private sectors.

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Nashville is ready to build back its roads and infrastructure stronger | Opinion - Tennessean