TRACTOR-TRAILER RIGS USING DANGEROUS HIGHWAY

TRACTOR-TRAILER RIGS USING DANGEROUS HIGHWAY

Lighted Tennessee Department of Transportation billboards say “No trucks or RVs on State Route 263”, referred to locally as Turkey Creek Highway.

While the words may be interpreted to mean tractor-trailer trucks are prohibited from using State Route 263, the message is deceiving.

“This is more of a strong suggestion to take an alternative route”, according to state department of transportation Community Relations official Kathryn Schultz.

The message billboards went up the week Highway 25 was shut down because of the instability of the bluff at the rock mitigation project between Carthage and the Tanglewood community.

There are several of the billboards strategically placed on state highways and Interstate 40 in and around Smith County warning residents Highway 25 is temporarily closed and for motorists to take an alternate route.

Schultz said transportation department officials have contacted trucking companies to let them know of the state highway closing so they can alert their drivers to take alternative routes.

A main shipping corridor, hundreds of tractor-trailer trucks travel Interstate 40 daily.

Many exit the interstate in Gordonsville, traveling north through Carthage as a short cut to reach counties in northern middle Tennessee and south central Kentucky.

Carthage is the only Cumberland River crossing in Smith County, making Highway 25 a popular state route for tractor-trailer trucks.

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