Construction Update

Our utility work in the 100 Block of S. Gay Street is almost completed with some water meters, fire hydrants and fire service lines left to be installed.

KUB is also continuing with their efforts to transfer over electrical service to the new installations.

We will resume work at the intersection of Vine Avenue and S. Gay Street beginning Monday. This work will involve extending the sewer line. At least one lane of Vine Avenue should remain open through most of this work.

Since excavation is virtually completed on the 1oo Block, we plan to take down most of the burlap which should visually open back up the block at least.

With the completion of the work at Vine, we will then most likely resume our work in the 200 Block. We are making sure that both Vine Avenue and the 200 Block are not both closed at the same time. We will discuss the implications of this move more completely at our meeting on August 11, 2009 at 5pm at the Emporium. I hope all of you can be there. We need your input as we plan to move the project forward. It is my understanding that one lane of the 200 Block will remain open for the majority of the time it will take to complete this work which could take as much as one month.

When this is completed then we plan to move back into Vine Avenue for 2 to 3 weeks which will probably involve a complete closure for a large amount of the time.

The sidewalk work and structural column work will probably begin near the first of September. The Contractor and Engineers are carefully reviewing the plans so we make sure we get off on the right foot with this critical work.

The Contractor plans to temporarily patch that bit of sidewalk which was torn out on the east side of S. Gay Street at the State Street/W. Vine Avenue area.

You may have noticed our "We are Open Sign" has been down lately. Exhibitors Source folks have been working on it to repair wind damage and it should be back up shortly.

It is the time of year for folks to be moving in and out of the various condos and apartments and we have made accommodations for this. If folks will find the Superintendent or a Construction Manager on site, we will probably be able to direct them through the construction site closer to the building entrance.

We are in the preliminary stages of discussing the Jackson Avenue ramp issues and I plan to post more on this as discussions move forward.

Again, I encourage anyone who is interested in the Streetscapes Project or anyone having questions or concerns to attend our meeting on August 11 at 5pm at the Emporium. I plan to have KPD, KUB, City Engineering, CBID, and Contractors there to hopefully answer any questions.

I will post the Agenda early next week along with another announcement.

View of the 200 Block looking south on a rainy morning

100 Block Mascot

Note the bird hitchhiking on the excavator. He was there with the machine running almost like he was inspecting with his mouth wide open most of the time.

Construction Update

We are still finishing up the last bit of utility work on the 100 Block primarily on the Vine Avenue end of the block. Hopefully in the next week we will have extended the stormwater utility which we are currently working on all the way to Vine Avenue. At that point we hope to begin excavation for the subgrade and then hopefully putting back in some of the rock on the balance of the 100 Block.

The final design of the columns under the sidewalk is still being reviewed by all those involved and we hope to start work very soon on this next phase, probably in the next few weeks. I should know more about this by our meeting on August 11. My hope is that once we begin actually forming up and pouring concrete, we can get a more reliable schedule of work so folks can know when their sidewalk may be affected. Some work is going on under the sidewalk now as we prepare for that next phase of work. At some point it will be necessary to close off access to the underground areas for the safety of all involved.

Of course finishing up this work means we are also closer to having to finish up some utility work in the 200 Block which will force Vine Avenue to be closed for some period of time. We are still discussing all of the logistics associated with that move keeping in mind issues that arose when we previously worked in the 200 Block.

I have included several pictures of the site for those who may be interested and not down there often.

This pic is taken from the midblock crossing looking toward Jackson Avenue and shows the area which is completed except for some minor utility work. This is the area we plan to begin preparing for the final grade work.

This is the stormwater work still to be completed in the next week or so.

This pic is from the midblock crossing looking south toward Summitt Hill.

Another pic taken from the crossing created along Jackson and again showing the area that is close to being completed. There is a strong possibility that we can also take down the fencing when this bit of work is finished.

This picture was taken looking down Vine Avenue to its intersection with the 100 Block. This work will be very complicated when we actually begin as all of the utilities come together here.. You can see all of the patches in the road where previous work has taken place.

Thanks for all of the encouraging comments from everyone. I have shared them with those involved in the project and we all appreciate it.

Meeting

I have scheduled the next meeting for the 100 Block Community for Tuesday August 11, 2009 at 5Pm at the Emporium. I will try to have KPD, Contractor, KUB, City Engineering, and the CBID represented there to give an update on activities to date and to discuss future work and schedules. I will send out a press release and reminder along with an Agenda closer to the actual meeting date but wanted you to put it on your calenders now. Hope to see everyone there.

Construction Update

We are now only a few weeks away from completing the utility work within the 100 Block of S. Gay Street according to Contractors. When this last bit of work is complete, we will be able to remove the burlap from the fencing.

At that point we can begin working on the subgrade for the road and probably putting in 2 or 3 inches of base stone as well. It is possible that the fence may be able to be removed, at least in some locations, when that task is completed. Engineers are taking one last look at the structural column design before we proceed with the sidewalk construction phase. Hopefully this work is still on schedule to begin in a couple of weeks. The old sidewalk which has been partially damaged by the new construction will be repaired as we construct the new columns and sidewalk.

Quite a bit of work remains however at the intersection of Vine Avenue and S. Gay Street, and then on up into the 200 Block. The excavation and installing of the stormwater system is advancing to this point where it comes together with water, electric, and gas.

I am still in the process of scheduling a meeting for either August 10 or 11 and will announce that here and through a press release when the date is confirmed.

If anyone has any issues they would like me to place on the agenda, please forward to me at Remmett@cityofknoxville.org.

Thanks to everyone for their continued cooperation.

KUB water outage

The outage may occur on Thursday from 3am until 7am on the west side of the 100 Block. KUB is running some tests and if all goes well they will begin their notification procedure. Hopefully the outage will be no more than 2 hours but they always schedule the extra time in case of problems. I will post more on this tomorrow after the weekly construction meeting.

KUB water outage next week

KUB has informed me that either middle or late week next week they will need to shut off the water on the west side of S. Gay Street to tie in the new service. This outage should not last long, hopefully no more than an hour or two and will occur in the night. I will be talking to some of you next week about that timing. The last outage began at 4am and was scheduled to run until 8am. The water was back on in that case before 6am. This should be a similar process but I will be checking with folks on the west side Monday afternoon to get the best time. Please send me an email at Remmett@cityofknoxville.org if you have a preference and I will relay that to KUB.
Thanks

Construction Update

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday. Much work has been done in the last couple of weeks and it looks like AT&T has finished up their work in the Vine/ Gay Street intersection. More work is to be done however, as gas, electric, water and storm are all slated for improvement here. We have been fortunate to have been able to keep at least one lane of the intersection of Vine Street and S. Gay Street open but in a few weeks, we will most likely have periodic closures.

Unfortunately we have also had discussions about the possibility of closing at least some of the 200 Block once again to finish up all of this utility work.

I plan to schedule an update meeting for the 100 Block sometime near the first of August/ end of July and we should know much more about these issues by then.

Also, we now have the design for the columns supporting the sidewalk and are planning the sequence of events to begin that work. We have decided to replace the existing columns with new and improved columns which will effect the timing of the sidewalk replacement. We still plan to begin at the sidewalk in front of the former Volunteer Ministry building. Since it is unoccupied (except for the apartments above) and in such a tricky spot with the curve and the Jackson Avenue ramp tie in, we figure this is probably the worst case so we can learn what works best without the usual inconveniences. Of course access around the work area will have to be maintained throughout this process.

The end of July and first of August is also sure to see an influx of folks moving in and out and we are preparing for that.

As promised, the Contractor has built a crossing along Jackson Avenue which has been well received.

Thanks to KPD for locating the Skywatch unit back on the Jackson Avenue parking lot. We continue to look into improvements here and have recently had the non-functioning parking equipment removed. A 'Free Parking' sign is planned and we have continued to have discussion regarding fencing and security cameras.

Last, thanks to Mr. Michael Haynes for the positive article in this weeks Metro Pulse. We are being successful here only because of the teamwork shown by contractors, residents and businesses in getting the job done. Thanks to all of you.