Tourists headed for Knoxville and points beyond are still being routed via Murfreesboro and the Tennessee State Highway Department has made no attempt to even indicate that U. S. Highway 70N is open as far as Carthage.
C. W. Butts, traffic engineer for the department, said he would recommend a sign, indicating that the road was open at least as far as Lebanon, be installed to let tourists know that a shorter route than U. S. Highway 70S was open. But no such sign has as yet been installed along Lebanon Road at any point near Fairfield Avenue, where the detour starts.
Butts said he would make the recommendation after business men in Donelson, Lebanon and points along Lebanon Road pointed out that the distance to Sparta via U. S. 70N and Hiwhway 26 is shorter than via U. S. 70S, which also carries the heavy traffic to Chattanooga as far as Murfreesboro out of Nashville. Five fatalities occurred in accidents on U. S. 70S between Murfreesboro and Nashville over the weekend.
Highway Department officials have indicated the detour, which is to bypass construction work between Chestnut Mound and Baxter, was routed via U. S. 70S because it was considered a less curving road and because construction will soon begin, possibly in a month or six weeks, on Highway 26 just out of Lebanon.