Franklin—Judge Russ Heldman, the man presiding over the so-called 840 trial, is going field and stream. This week, the judge will shed his black robe for all-terrain gear when he personally inspects the path of state Route 840 in southwest Williamson County. The judge requested a tour of the 840 battlefield as the trial on the controversial roadway resumed Monday in Williamson County Chancery Court.
Heldman told startled attorneys—plaintiffs’ lawyers, who are seeking fuller economic and environmental impact studies for 840-South, and state attorneys representing the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT)—that he wanted to see firsthand the streams and springs the road would cross. The judge pointed out that TDOT’s lawyers had objected as “highly prejudicial” to a touchy-feely video of the 840 right-of-way submitted as evidence by the plaintiffs.
“The best evidence is the land and the waterworks,” Heldman said, announcing his planned on-site visit. “And that evidence cannot be brought into the courtroom. It’s very important to this court to understand [the evidence], especially in light of the [Tennessee] Code, which charges the TDOT Commissioner to establish standards for construction based on topographical and natural conditions. Under the circumstances, it’s impractical not to see the land.”
Central in the trial is whether TDOT can continue with the construction of roughly 17 miles of 840-South between Highway 100 and Thompson Station Road. Heldman earlier issued a stop-work injunction on that section in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of property owners in the path of the roadway, joined by the SouthWest Williamson County Community Association and the Heritage Foundation. The suit alleges that TDOT Commissioner Bruce Saltsman failed to enforce his department’s legally mandated procedures in planning and building the southern loop of 840. If constructed, the road would form a concrete circle through the counties surrounding Metro Nashville.
Heldman plans to bring a full-court press on his field trip this week: a court reporter, a pack of lawyers, expert witnesses for both sides who can testify on-site to the probable impacts of 840 on the environment and how TDOT plans to mitigate those impacts, the concerned citizens who routinely fill the spectator gallery, and media representatives.
Monday’s testimony featured witnesses for the plaintiffs who expressed their professional and personal concerns about 840-South. Heritage Foundation director Mary Pearce said that her group joined the suit against TDOT as part of its mission to preserve the historic, geographic, and cultural resources of Williamson County. Intervening in the lawsuit “seemed the best way to make TDOT do the best job on what could be the biggest public works project in state history,” Pearce explained.
She said that TDOT’s environmental assessment for 840-South failed to identify many wetlands and streams lying in or near the road’s path. “Are you saying that’s [the environmental assessment] inaccurate?” Heldman asked.
“Yes, that’s inaccurate,” Pearce responded. “A full environmental impact statement would bring in more experts to consider the impacts on this world-class ecology, and on the rural character of this land. If they’re going to build it, they should build it right.”
Property owners Billie Rutledge, Dorothy Beard, and Brad Caldwell testified that TDOT representatives never informed them fully of the impact 840’s construction could have on the springs that supply their drinking water, and on their remaining land not taken for the roadway. In a series of testy exchanges with Heldman, state attorney Phyllis Childs repeatedly objected to this testimony as irrelevant—and she was frequently overruled.
Rejecting one such challenge to the testimony, Heldman said, “In any lawsuit, whenever there is evidence that one side or another is lying, it’s relevant.”
