At 10 a.m. on Saturday, December 5, Fairview's Christmas Parade will step off from Westwood Elementary, head up Highway 96 North, turn onto Fairview Boulevard and run west to the SFEG/France plant, where floats unload in the parking lot. Horses join at Fairview Ballpark as the line passes. The City of Fairview's parade application asks drivers who don't need to drop anyone off to keep going westbound on Fairview Boulevard. That puts a holiday crowd on the same stretch of State Route 100 that has been a work zone since September 2025.
The parade is the clearest date on the corridor's calendar this fall. The Tennessee Department of Transportation splits what's left into two groups. Paving and striping are due in October. The permanent traffic signal at Crow Cut Road and Cumberland Drive is due in November, and its poles are already late. If both targets hold, the first weekend in December is when the whole rebuilt boulevard is in use at once, with the town on it.
A finish date that has moved three times
The project was supposed to wrap up in midsummer. Each update since then has pushed the date back for a different reason.
| When it was reported | Target at the time | What moved it |
|---|---|---|
| TDOT newsletter, July 2026 | Substantial completion at the end of July | Private utility relocation delays and several unmarked utility lines |
| Board of Commissioners, Sept. 17, 2026 | Completion by August 31, already missed | Delays getting signal materials; extension still being worked out |
| TDOT newsletter, Sept. 18, 2026 | Most work in October, signals in November | Delivery of the permanent signal poles |
In July, TDOT said paving should be done "by this fall." At the time, crews were digging storm drains north of Cumberland and working toward Adele Road near the Walmart, while utility crews moved water lines ahead of them. When TDOT representatives updated commissioners in September, the board asked about the completion date and the contractor's time extension. According to the September 17 meeting minutes, TDOT and the contractor were "still working through the extension process based on the remaining work."
The project page on TDOT's site gives the end of October for substantial completion and the end of November for the crosswalk and permanent signal at Crow Cut Road and Cumberland Drive. The September newsletter had put crosswalk installation on its October list, so the project page's November date is the later of the two published targets for that crosswalk. Both of the page's dates carry an asterisk that reads "subject to change."
October is the paving month
As of TDOT's September 18 newsletter, the temporary signal was in, storm drain work was complete, most of the curb and gutter was done, and sidewalk crews were starting at the west end of the project and laying topsoil and sod behind the new concrete.
That left this list for October, as the newsletter estimated it:
- Driveways and the last of the curb and gutter
- A top layer of paving across the whole project
- Final striping
- Sod
- Crosswalks near Crow Cut Road and Cumberland Drive
That order affects the daily drive more than it looks. The minutes say normal traffic patterns come back near the end of the project, once the sidewalks and other remaining work are done. TDOT's rules for this job keep scheduled lane closures to 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on school days and allow no night work, so the morning and afternoon school runs stay open while paving goes on in between. TDOT posts weekly closures in its Middle Tennessee lane closure reports, including the one released October 8 for October 11 through 17.
November belongs to the poles
The intersection at Crow Cut Road and Cumberland Drive is why this project exists. TDOT combined two separate efforts into one contract: sidewalks between the Community Center and Bowie Lake Road, and a signal at SR 100 and Cumberland. The agency notes that Fairview High, Middle and Elementary schools are all near Cumberland Drive. When it's done, the intersection will have dedicated left-turn lanes, a new signal and school zone flashing signs.
For now, a temporary signal runs the intersection. Commissioner Roberts told the board in September that it "has helped alleviate some of the issues associated with the project." The permanent signals and the flashing school beacon are on TDOT's November list. Its newsletter adds a note in parentheses beside that line: "pole delivery delayed." As of today, October 12, no published update confirms the poles have arrived or the permanent signal is working.
So the road can be paved and striped this month while the intersection it was built around keeps running on temporary equipment into November. TDOT's own end-of-November target for the signal falls about a week before the parade.
Where the new sidewalks run
The sidewalk coverage changes along the route, and that decides which side of the road you can walk on:
- Fairview Community Center to King Road: westbound side only
- King Road to Cumberland Drive/Crow Cut Road: both sides
- Cumberland Drive/Crow Cut Road to Bowie Lake Road: westbound side only
The sidewalks are 5 feet wide, with new curb, gutter and storm drains, and the project uses federal and state money. TDOT describes SR 100 as a corridor serving "schools, recreational facilities, and commercial areas." Before this project, the stretch between the Community Center and Bowie Lake had sidewalk in some places and none in others.
Several regular stops are on the same boulevard. The city lists the Fairview Park & Recreation Complex at 2714 Fairview Blvd. W. and the Fairview Public Library, a Williamson County Public Library System branch, at 2240 Fairview Blvd. Jefferson's is at 2431 Fairview Blvd., The Thompsons Kitchen at 1880 Fairview Blvd. and Uncle Lenny's Country Cafe at 1710 Fairview Blvd. City Hall isn't on the boulevard. Its address is 7100 City Center Way.
The west end of the project stops at Bowie Lake Road. Bowie Nature Park's address is 7211 Bowie Lake Road, and the park says its entrance is on Highway 100, about a mile west of the Highway 96/100 interchange.
The fall calendar along the same road
Bowie's October programs keep going through the paving work. The Fairview Parks System's October 2026 newsletter lists these:
- Yoga in the Park with certified instructor Anna Shalray at the Playground Gazebo, 10 a.m. on October 17, 24 and 31, donations encouraged
- Bowie Homeschool "Forest Friends," open hours from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on October 21 at Bowie Nature Center, with tree growth slices, twig crafts and a leaf chromatography experiment
- Trunk or Treat, 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, which the city lists as Trunk or Treat and Movie in the Park
- Creepy Critter Crafts, 10 a.m. on October 28 at Bowie Nature Center
The park asks families to register for all programs so staff can plan supplies and space. Trunk or Treat lands in the last week of TDOT's October window, so the evening crowd at the park may arrive while final striping and sod are still underway on the highway outside.
November brings the city's Around Town Coffee on the 11th. Parade entries and payments are due by Friday, November 20, with no late entries. The city lists a Christmas tree lighting at City Hall on Friday, December 4. The parade follows the next morning. Motorized entries stage at Westwood Elementary starting at 8 a.m. and must be lined up by 9, ahead of the 10 a.m. step-off. If the weather is bad, the city's rain date is Saturday, December 12.
The parade turns off Highway 96 and goes west on Fairview Boulevard, past the work finished this fall, and ends at the France plant lot. Whether a permanent signal is running at Crow Cut Road and Cumberland Drive by then depends on a pole delivery TDOT has already called delayed.
A road project like this one affects property along SR 100 before the last pole goes up. It changes access, frontage and how a parcel near a busy intersection works day to day. If you own land or a home along the corridor and want to talk through what the finished boulevard could mean for it, Greg Sanford has followed county and state roadwork from both the brokerage side and the commission side. Request a private consultation.
