TLM, A2H: Broadway is Wide Enough For Two-Way

McKENZIE (July 9) — This week the McKenzie City Council will hold a public hearing at 5 p.m. on Thursday regarding the directional change of Broadway Street to a one-way street and in its regular meeting of mayor and council will hear the second of two readings to convert the street to one-way; there are some new developments in this issue.

Interested parties are invited to attend and address the council during the public hearing at 5 p.m. prior to the regular meeting or during the regular meeting by prior request.

On July 3, the City of McKenzie provided a letter from TLM Associates, Inc., an architect and engineering firm in Jackson, Tenn., dated July 1 that states, “At your request, I visited Broadway Street in downtown McKenzie to measure the travel lane width. The travel lane width of Broadway Street varies from 24 feet from Lee Street to Banner Row to 30 feet from Banner Row to Cedar Street. The width meets or exceeds the minimum width requirements of TDOT’s Design Criteria to allow for two-way traffic. If you choose to make it two-way, the parking lines on the east side should be revised to allow northbound traffic access to parking.”

TLM says Broadway is wide enough for two-way travel, reaffirming the work and statements from A2H, the engineering firm that handled the Broadway project.

A2H provided the following statement, “The road was designed for two-way travel. The one-way direction was added after construction was completed. The one-way direction does allow for smoother traffic flow, but two-way travel is acceptable.”

The measurements mentioned in the TLM report align with the measurements that The Banner took of the street in June.

An A2H spokesperson said on May 1 and June 28 that Broadway Street was changed to one-way solely at McKenzie Mayor Ryan Griffin’s request.

A2H received a copy of the video and transcription from June’s city council meeting where mayor and council alleged that the street was made 4 feet too narrow by the architect firm while making the upgrades to Broadway.

The statements made in the meeting have seemingly been discredited with this new information from TLM.

Thank you to the City of McKenzie for your transparency providing the letter from TLM.

The Banner has also spoken with all except two of the Broadway business owners, and some on Cedar Street, who state they want Broadway to be a two-way street. Some have said the one-way travel is hurting their businesses.

They have seen people try to come to their business and give up because the parking was striped the wrong way. The striping requires visitors to make an illegal u-turn in the street to park on the Veterans Park/Williams Furniture side of Broadway or go around and turn onto Broadway from Cedar Street (the proposed one-way). As one Broadway customer said, that was too much hassle just to park and they left.

There are already a number of empty buildings downtown.

One business owner said, the week the street was changed to one-way there was an accident right in front of their business. One of their customers was involved.

The street was one-way for 17 days, but has been two-way for more than 138 years. An 1886 map of downtown shows an exceptionally wide Broadway Street.

Councilperson Drew Beeler stated in the June meeting that when he spoke with Police Chief Ryan White about Broadway, the chief said, “He was sure that there had been a couple of accidents, but it wasn't a huge issue. It wasn't a hot spot for accidents; but his opinion was that the safest option was to make it a one-way street.”

The previous concerns raised were related to spending the $4,600 to restripe Broadway to allow two-way parking, even though there was $16,000 left over in the 2023-2024 budget in the street department.

Had A2H been allowed to carry out the Broadway plans without interference, the striping would not need to be fixed now.

Now that it has been confirmed by two architect firms that Broadway Street is wide enough for two-way travel, it is time to act in the best interests of the downtown small businesses and keep Broadway a two-way street.