According to the City of Brentwood, the cones on Ragsdale Road were scheduled to move to a new spot on October 9 and 10. Traffic between Split Log Road and the Glenellen neighborhood was set to come off the old road and onto the new alignment. Then, starting today, crews build the new median islands. For most of 2026, Ragsdale has been a road waiting to become a different one. This week it starts to look like the one on the plans.

The City announced the schedule in a notice dated October 1 on its official Nextdoor account. It said lane closures would be needed on October 9 and 10 to shift traffic, and more would follow while the islands go in. Those are announced dates. They're worth checking against the work zone itself. They still mark the clearest moment yet in a project whose posted deadlines have been less steady than its progress on the ground.

Fall break week on Ragsdale

The City timed the median work to Williamson County Schools' fall break, October 12 through 17. Here's what the notice spells out for drivers this week:

1. Lane closures run from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. while the new median islands are built.
2. One lane stays open the whole time, with flaggers and traffic control in place.
3. Emergency access is kept open throughout the work.
4. The City asks drivers to allow extra time and follow the posted traffic-control measures in the work zone.

The closures stop at 5:30 p.m., so evening drives home should be easier than mid-morning errands this week. Fall break also means no school-run traffic in the corridor while crews work. The City chose the timing. It hasn't said what it expected that to change.

The road on the drawings

The new alignment matters because of what it's meant to carry once it's done. The City's project page describes a three-lane road with curb and gutter, a center turn lane, and a raised median in places. A 10-foot bike and pedestrian path will run along the south side, set behind a five-foot grass strip. A six-foot sidewalk goes on the other side.

When the Board of Commissioners approved the contract in October 2024, then-City Manager Kirk Bednar described the design in plain terms. As Williamson Scene reported, he said:

"It's 1.3 miles, and the widening plan is our standard widening improvement, which is three lanes with an occasional median. There will be a multi-use, 10-foot-wide trail on one side of the road and a sidewalk on the other side of the road."

Ragsdale is getting Brentwood's standard widening package, so the finished road will match a cross-section the City already uses elsewhere. The Williamson Herald's coverage of the same meeting pointed out a practical gain. The new sidewalk would let people in the Glenellen neighborhood walk to Jordan Elementary and to what the paper called the future Jordan Middle School. The City hasn't published where the south-side path ties into the wider bikeway network. For now, the walking link that's been described is the one along the road itself.

How 2026 got the road here

The fall traffic shift is the latest step in a year of visible milestones, and each one came through a public meeting.

At the April 27, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting, Bednar opened his report with the Ragsdale reopening. He said, "We know a lot of people are excited about that." He also said the road was scheduled to reopen officially at 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 30, and that construction would continue under a new traffic pattern after that.

By the July 13, 2026 meeting, the city manager's report came from Jason Gage. He said Cleary Construction expected to begin controlled rock blasting at the north end of the project within one to two weeks. The blasting was for drainage infrastructure and would follow State Fire Marshal guidelines meant to protect nearby structures.

Reopening in April, blasting for drainage in summer, then the move to the new alignment and median islands in October. Read in order, the work has moved from getting the road usable again, to what goes under it, to its final shape. The City hasn't published a percent-complete figure. These meeting reports and notices are the best public record of where the job stands.

The date that moved, and the one that held

The contract terms show a pattern in the schedule. Brentwood awarded the work to Cleary Construction, the lowest of four bidders, in October 2024. The Williamson Herald reported the contract at $15.7 million plus a $725,000 contingency allowance. Williamson Scene reported the project as a $15.8 million approval. The contract also included a $250,000 "timely completion bonus" for finishing early.

The April 2027 final deadline is the same as when the contract was signed. The bonus date has moved about six months, from late June to year-end. Williamson Source's 2024 report also gave the April 28, 2027 completion date. So the date that pays a contractor to move faster has shifted, and the date the contract actually requires has not.

No public record we found explains why the bonus date changed, and no source says whether the year-end target is on track. Here's what's known for sure. The City's own page now points to the end of 2026 for the early finish and April 2027 for the final one. The October move onto the new alignment comes with less than three months left before that early target.

Next door, two cities give McEwen Drive two different timelines

Ragsdale isn't the only east-side road with dates worth reading closely. The McEwen Drive extension, Phase 5 from Wilson Pike to the Franklin line near Taramore, is a joint Brentwood and Franklin project. The two cities' public pages don't describe the same stage of it.

Brentwood's McEwen Drive page still lists right-of-way acquisition for Summer 2025 and construction for Fall 2026. It describes the finished road as four lanes divided by a median, with left-turn lanes, curb and gutter, a sidewalk, a multi-use path, and lighting. The page frames the extension as a link from the new I-65 interchange to Taramore, and eventually toward Pleasant Hill Road, Clovercroft Road, Nolensville, Smyrna, and I-24.

Franklin's capital projects page for the same phase was updated October 11, 2026. It says the city is still acquiring the land, rights-of-way, and easements it needs, and estimates completion in 2030. It also says the road will first be built with two lanes, graded for an eventual four-lane divided street. The project includes upgrading three Columbia Gulf natural gas transmission pipelines.

The budget figures have moved too. At a January 9 town hall, the Williamson Herald reported a $19.6 million estimate, split 59 percent Brentwood and 41 percent Franklin. The paper also reported that McEwen would stay open during construction, though drivers should expect disruption. Franklin's page now shows a project estimate of $18,599,999. The most recent Phase 5 contract we found is a Franklin agenda item from June 2025. It's a right-of-way appraisal contract with Boozer & Company, capped at $22,000, not a construction award.

Ragsdale shows how a project like this tends to show up in daily life. The first real signs were a reopening date announced at a commission meeting, a blasting notice, and a Nextdoor post about shifting lanes. None of that has appeared yet for McEwen Phase 5, and Franklin's page, updated this week, still describes land acquisition. Construction notices like that are what will confirm McEwen has started, more than the season listed on a project page.

For Ragsdale, the next dates to watch are the end of calendar year 2026 for the early-completion target and April 2027 for final completion. Both are posted on the City of Brentwood's project page.

If you're thinking about selling, buying, or simply staying put in east Brentwood, knowing where projects like Ragsdale and McEwen really stand is part of the local knowledge we bring to every conversation. Chrisley & Co. follows these corridors closely and is happy to talk through what they mean for your street. Schedule a private consultation.