How would you feel about a third east-west state highway crossing Putnam County end to end?

[Sun Belt-lover L.A.M.]

I have a map I'd like to post of the routes highlighted for E-W highways I believe are needed, and I now have it on Imgur. However, I'm worried about not being able to upload it properly. Can someone please give some advice? I can't do it the simple copy-paste way.

[IMG]<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/SFVBAI4"><a href="//imgur.com/a/SFVBAI4">Additional E-W Hwys Needed Putnam County</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>[/IMG]

P.S.: In case someone figures it out in my absence, here's some information about the map:

Spoiler

The purple is just the approximate route the already-proposed West Cookeville Bypass is planned to take. I only added this for reference.

This route would involve building a bridge over Center Hill Lake from Craft Center Drive to Austin Bottom Road, as well as at least improving a brief portion of Austin Bottom Road from the bridge to Austin Lake Road. However, the route could optionally be made to have wide paved shoulders (preferable as it'd then be the fastest route from Cookeville to Murfreesboro and Smithville to Cookeville), along with appropriate portions of S.R. 135. Of course, it would have rumble strips and reflectors, and the stop sign at Austin Bottom/Cookeville Boatdock Road would likely be switched. This one would be an arterial.

This route is the one I mentioned in the OP. All the improvement it'd need would be on Stanton Road and parts of Indian Creek Road, as well as adding rumble strips and reflectors. Stop signs would likely be adjusted, as would speed limits to better fit with a state highway. This one would be a collector.

This route is based off of the one JMT mentioned, except it would go via Old Baxter Road and Carrs Chapel Road to near the level of Center Hill Lake. Stop sign at Carrs Chapel/Old Baxter may or may not be switched. Carrs Chapel would have to be improved (similar to Stanton and Indian Creek in the previous route) as well as extended to curve around the lake, bridge over Mine Lick Creek and go uphill to Water Plant Road. Thomas Twin Oak Road would also need improvement, and the stop signs where Water Plant Road and Thomas Twin Oak meet Baxter Road would likely have to either be adjusted or part of an all-way stop. This route would be a collector and probably the least feasible of the three, although still a good idea.

What the abbreviations mean on the map...
--AB: Austin Bottom Road
--BM: Buck Mountain Road/Brotherton Mountain Road
--BV: Buffalo Valley Road
--CB: Cookeville Boatdock Road
--CC: Carrs Chapel Road
--EB: East Broad Street
--H: Hopewell Road
--IC: Indian Creek Road
--J: Jackson Street
--S: Stanton Road
--TTO: Thomas Twin Oak Road
--WC: Woodcliff Road
--WP: Water Plant Road
--1A: First Avenue

[Sun Belt-lover L.A.M.]

This map finally works! Thanks to JMT for help!

[JMT]

Originally Posted by Sun Belt-lover L.A.M.

This map finally works! Thanks to JMT for help!

You did a good job making that map. It's easy to see now why there's not a road connecting the Window Cliffs/Burgess Falls area to Silver Point; the topography is just too crazy to build a highway without it costing a fortune.

[Sun Belt-lover L.A.M.]

Originally Posted by JMT

You did a good job making that map.

Thanks! I've made maps since I was 7 if not younger, so that's over half of my life already.

It's easy to see now why there's not a road connecting the Window Cliffs/Burgess Falls area to Silver Point; the topography is just too crazy to build a highway without it costing a fortune.

Indeed. As good of an idea as it'd be, the terrain around Mine Lick is just as unforgiving as the Bloody Eighth, and they don't have the fortune the Bloody Eighth does about most of the road already being there. Even Indian Creek (Buffalo Valley) and the Cumberland Plateau escarpment (Monterey) are more forgiving than that, and they'd be quite unforgiving themselves if not for existing roads to make the green route much easier.

That doesn't mean I'm not in favor of the orange route - I certainly am - just not as much as the green and blue routes, as it'd be more expensive, no more beneficial than the green route and not as beneficial as the blue route. In fact, I'd be very surprised if most rural and some suburban state highways didn't originate in the same way the green and blue routes would if added.

Even if they built the bridge directly across the embayment from the end of Carrs Chapel and just added a single access road to the mouth of Mine Lick (or even eliminated the access road too), it'd still be very expensive, and that might actually make things worse despite saving a bit of money due to the likely need for switchbacks (which would make it impassable to tractor trailer semi-trucks). But it could still be beneficial for Cookeville itself in the long run, even if not immediately like the blue route, as the Eighth, Window Cliffs/Burgess Falls and Silver Point areas all have a lot of flat, developable land that wouldn't be difficult to urbanize. So a curvy small-shouldered two-lane highway there would still be a bit better than wasting money on a four-lane highway to nowhere.

Of the three routes, which one is most favorable for you (asking everyone), which one's least, and which ones do you like/dislike? And any others that you can think of that'd be better (and why)?