Cookeville, TTU nursing building goes up. (construction, university, utilities)

[JD59]

COOKEVILLE -- Construction of a new nursing building at Tennessee Tech University has caused the temporary closure of a portion of a well-traveled Cookeville street.

Seventh Street, from Mahler to Walnut avenues, has been closed since just a few days before Christmas and is expected to remain closed for a couple more weeks, according to TTU officials.

Glenn Binkley, who is the assistant director of facilities and business services at TTU, said the street closure was needed in order to run underground utilities from TTU's main campus across Seventh Street, where it's constructing a new 66,000-square-foot nursing and health services building.

The nursing and health services construction consists of two sections with the main building, about 59,600 square feet in the front, connected by open, covered walkways to a 6,500-square-foot auditorium in the back.

The $17.39 million building construction is expected to be complete by January 2008.

Those interested in viewing the daily progress of the construction can visit TTU's Web site at www.tntech.edu/nursing/building (broken link) to see a Web cam view of the project.