Nashville breaks ground on Chestnut Street complete-streets project

Metro Nashville held a groundbreaking July 8 for the Chestnut Street corridor project, a planned set of pedestrian, transit, bicycle and roadway improvements between 8th Avenue South and Lafayette Street.

The city describes Chestnut Street as the first Complete Street project delivered under Choose How You Move, Nashville’s voter-approved transportation program. Planned work includes safer crossings, improved sidewalks and bus stops, and protected bike lanes.

Corridor links central neighborhoods

The project is focused on Chestnut Street rather than a citywide transportation buildout. The corridor connects Midtown, Edgehill, Chestnut Hill, Wedgewood Houston and downtown Nashville.

For people traveling through those areas, the announced improvements are intended to change conditions along the corridor for walking, biking, taking the bus and using the roadway. The city specifically identified safer crossings as part of the project’s planned work from 8th Avenue South to Lafayette Street.

The five named neighborhoods and districts illustrate the corridor’s role as a connection among central Nashville areas and downtown. The project’s scope, as announced, includes both street-crossing and sidewalk improvements as well as transit-stop and protected-bike-lane elements.

First project under Choose How You Move

Choose How You Move is the voter-approved program under which the city is delivering the Chestnut Street Complete Street project. The July 8 ceremony marked the beginning of the project’s groundbreaking phase.

City transportation officials attended the ceremony, along with representatives of South Nashville Action People, according to Metro Nashville’s announcement. The city did not provide a project cost, construction completion date, or a count of planned crossings and bus stops in the available announcement.

It also did not specify the length of the planned protected bike lanes. Those details remain unannounced in the source material available for the groundbreaking.

What comes next

The next confirmed development is the planned construction of the announced corridor improvements. Metro Nashville has not set out a public completion deadline in the available announcement, so the groundbreaking should not be read as confirmation that work is finished.

As the project moves forward, the confirmed elements are safer crossings, sidewalks, bus stops and protected bike lanes along Chestnut Street between 8th Avenue South and Lafayette Street. The city has not provided further timing or cost information in the announcement.