NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — House Democratic leadership is calling on Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to investigate the state’s Choice Lane Project contract bidding and awarding process after a potential conflict of interest was revealed between the Tennessee Department of Transportation and one of the companies that won the bid.
The 26-mile, $9.2 billion Choice Lane project, stretching from I-24 between Nashville and Murfreesboro, is set to break ground next year. It will create optional, paid toll lanes the state says drivers can use to bypass traffic.
Foreign, private companies to run Middle Tennessee Choice Lanes
However, after TDOT revealed the coalition of six private companies that will work on the project, called DriveTN. The Tennessean first reported former TDOT Chief of Staffer Steve Townsend left the state to work for Ferrovial-Cintra, one of the companies that won the bid, just months before the company submitted said bid.
“Everybody’s been scratching their head, like, what is this really about? Now we learn that there are people who worked in the Lee administration who also have a financial interest in these private tolling companies that received the winning bid,” said Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville)…