Construction Update

Work is continuing at the intersection of Vine Avenue and S. Gay Street as crews advance the sewer and stormwater utilities. We have managed to keep a lane of traffic onto Vine opened most of the time and the 200 Block has remained open.

Probably sometime next week we will completely shut down the 200 Block for about three months to finish up utility work and begin the process of road and sidewalk construction. The sidewalk on the west side of the street beside the Sterchi Loft parking lot will be torn out quickly as utilities must be replaced under that sidewalk first. We will sign and reroute pedestrians to the sidewalk on the east side of the 200 Block. Of course the office trailer will be moved to another location so sight distance should be improved.

We will also work on some utilities in the road and will finish up both the road and the sidewalk at once before proceeding to the remaining eastern sidewalk.

We also are now planning to begin work on the sidewalks in the 100 Block within the next month beginning at the former site of the Volunteer Ministry.

I will schedule a meeting to coincide with that bit of work so everyone can be clear as to what is to be done and when. I will also have a follow up meeting a few weeks later to discuss future timelines and any unexpected issues which may arise.

Some of you may have noticed the sign we placed on the Jackson Avenue parking lot recently stating that the City of Knoxville lease on that property is due to expire on September 1, 2009.
As most of you know, we are in negotiations to purchase that property and this expiration of lease notice is associated with that.

I will try to post more on this as the negotiations continue.

The rain has caused some delays and rescheduling of certain work but we continue to make progress.

Last, some have pointed out and I have noticed myself, the railing on the stairway leading down to Jackson Avenue is in serious disrepair due to, apparently, vandalism. We have notified our folks for a work order so hopefully we will have that corrected in short order.

Thanks for your continued patience, particularly those folks near Vine as that work has been very disruptive.