With an Interstate 65 interchange at Buckner Lane included in the recently unveiled plans for a new 780-acre development, city officials continue to work on justifying the new interchange to the Federal Highway Administration.

Before Spring Hill can get any direct access to I-65, local and state officials must prove to the Federal Highway Administration that the interchange is warranted.

Brad Thompson, of Volkert Inc., updated the city’s Transportation Advisory Committee on Monday on the progress of getting the interchange approved at the federal level. Just last May, the Williamson County Commission voted to enter a contract with Volkert for the interchange study, with Spring Hill agreeing to put up 100 percent of the funds needed.

According to Thompson, a “kick-off” meeting was held with the Tennessee Department of Transportation in June. The traffic counts were completed in late August and the data was processed in early September.

Thompson said they have also completed documentation and analysis of land use assumptions and environmental concerns, analysis of existing safety issues, single line drawings of interchange types and have begun development of projected traffic for the interchange and the surrounding network.

City leaders have worked since 2008 to justify a new I-65 interchange at Buckner Lane to the Federal Highway Administration, but the project still remains unwarranted.

In 2008, the City of Spring Hill partnered with Thompson’s Station, Williamson County and the property owner of 780 acres off Buckner Lane near Summit High School for what was supposed to be only about a 24-month process to complete an interchange justification study.

According to Alderman Jonathan Duda, the justification process by the Federal Highway Administration got changed in the middle of the project. It’s now called an “interchange access report.”

“The parameters around the interchange access report changed substantially, and the bottom line is that about a year and a half ago, we completed the initial project,” he said. “We got TDOT to endorse it, we all agreed there was a regional benefit for an interchange. But since it was completed the Federal Highway Administration said we needed to study the area from Bear Creek Pike to 840, so we expanded the scope of the project.”

The next steps in the process will require consultants to finalize projected traffic for the interchange and surrounding network and submit the analysis to TDOT for review and approval.

Thompson said they will need to develop functional plans for interchange types, develop a draft document that addresses TDOT and Federal Highway Administration comments on the previous study. That document will need to be submitted to TDOT for review and revised before submitting the final draft to the Federal Highway Administration for review.

Quint Qualls covers Spring Hill for Home Page Media Group. Reach him at quint@springhillhomepage.com.