Tennessee transportation officials on Monday recommended that new, optional toll lanes be added to some highways around Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville.
Heavily traveled Interstate 24 at Moccasin Bend in Chattanooga is one of four traffic sites under consideration by the state for privately built and operated toll lanes, Tennessee Department of Transportation officials said Monday.
But officials said the first pick for what Republican Gov. Bill Lee calls “choice lanes” — because drivers can choose not to pay the toll and drive in them — will be another crowded stretch of I-24 between Nashville and Murfreesboro.
Other toll-lane projects proposed are I-65 from Nashville to Spring Hill and I-40 at the I-40/I-75 junction in Knoxville.
Yet another plan calls for replacing the I-55 Mississippi River bridge linking Tennessee and Arkansas.
It’s all part of a new $15 billion 10-year state plan. It funds not only the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s $1.2
