TDOT Told Memphis Its District Operations Manager Job Went Vacant. Council Members Said Quarterly Visits Are the Only Accountability They Have.

MEMPHIS, September 1, 2026 - Two Tennessee Department of Transportation officials briefed the Memphis City Council's Public Works, Solid Waste and General Services Committee and disclosed that the position responsible for maintenance and construction across four counties had become vacant on August 31, 2026.

The update was requested by Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton and Chairwoman Jana Swearengen-Washington. The Chairwoman opened by saying the city needs more regular supervision and observation of state routes, especially near tourist attractions, and asked who is responsible for checking those areas and how often. She named the civil rights museum, the zoo, Graceland, St. Jude and the airport, and specifically Third Street, Lamar, Airways, Poplar and East Parkway.

The vacancy

The department's district operations manager told the committee that his own position, covering maintenance and construction in four counties, became vacant as of August 31, 2026 because he had moved to a regional traffic operations role. He said he is still filling in. He also said the region's director of operations changed after a retirement in December 2025.

He said a replacement should be in place hopefully by the end of September 2026. The committee chairman asked that whoever is hired come and visit so members can put a face with a name.

Councilwoman Jerri Green connected the vacancy to the accountability problem directly. She said that other than having the officials come quarterly at the Council's request, she does not know how members can have any accountability to their constituents, and asked that whoever replaces him contact members immediately and give them a direct line of communication.

She also gave an unusual firsthand account. She said she has had a Tennessee Highway Patrol security detail for three weeks, that those troopers drive Memphis streets every day, and that they comment every day on how torn up the state roads are and that it is not like that in Nashville. She said she travels the state and no place has the problems Memphis has on its roads, and that the impression given to visitors is detrimental when the city is not getting investment from the state.

What the department reported

The officials walked through construction projects: a roundabout at New Allen Road and Ridgemont in Raleigh completing in summer 2027; a Thomas Street bridge replacement begun in June 2026 and completing in November 2027; North Parkway resurfacing near completion with striping remaining, coordinated with the city and with a section deferred for St. Jude utility relocation; Summer Avenue widening completing June 30, 2028, complicated by a 30-inch water main down the center of the street; Lamar phase two widening from Shelby Drive to Perkins completing July 31, 2028; the I-55 and Third Street interchange with the flyover beams set and that phase completing February 2027; and I-40 rubblization from Levee Road to Hollywood completing June 1, 2027.

Upcoming projects named were the I-240 and Airways Boulevard interchange with a 2027 construction year, Lamar phase three in 2027, Elvis Presley Boulevard phase three from Shelby Drive to Craft going to construction in 2031 with right of way expected in 2028, and I-40 widening from Germantown Road toward Airline in 2035.

On resurfacing, they said East Parkway was scheduled for fiscal year 2026 and slipped because of railroad delays, and is now expected in 2027, as is Lamar from Airways to Bellevue for the same reason.

They described a new performance based maintenance contract that began in April 2026 covering interstates in Shelby County and Fayette County, which they said has freed district staff to focus on state routes. Before that contract, they said, the district was working with nine transportation workers and nearly all of that effort went to the interstates.

The road nobody wants

Committee Chairman J. Ford Canale raised Sam Cooper Boulevard where it becomes Interstate 40, calling a stretch of roughly 500 to 750 yards a complete disaster and saying he would take the position that it is all the state's. The officials said they had researched the maintenance line and established White Station as the cutoff, with state responsibility beginning there heading east.

Councilman Dr. Jeff Warren pressed on why the segment is a city road at all, given it replaced a federal highway. The official said documentation he had seen on the morning of September 1, 2026 shows the route was signed over to the city, and that the sign-over was established in the 1980s. Chairman Canale said that since the state signed it over, the city would be happy to give it back.

What happens next

The officials said they would email the presentation to all members. The committee asked them to return quarterly and to bring the new district operations manager when hired. No dates were set.

Your city. Your money. Your receipts.