Construction Update - January 6, 2010

Wow has it been cold!! Obviously the cold weather has had and will continue to have an effect on our construction schedule. We were able to complete getting the sidewalk reconstructed in front of URBhana and have made plans to begin the next phase of construction next week. In the meantime, the sidewalk is reopened for the entire length on the west side for now (see next two pictures).

The next two pictures were taken under the newly constructed sidewalk. The Contractor is running heaters here to protect plumbing and other utilities.

Note the frame for the glass panel in the picture above.

Now that the plans are coming together we are working on the adjustment for several of the utilities that are in the underground section of the western sidewalk in the 100 Block. We had hoped to avoid having to do much here but it is now obvious several of the services are going to be directly in the way of the new beams for the sidewalk. Beginning later this week, KUB along with Massey Electric will begin the process of moving these services, first to a temporary service and later back to the permanent service. This will require some additional temporary power outages unfortunately, some being for folks who recently had other outages. KUB will notify folks per their usual process and I will also try to let you know here as soon as I can.

Since this utility work may take a bit of time, we are discussing moving construction over to the area in front of the Emporium maybe sometime in February. This work should go pretty quickly given the good conditions there and may be finished in three weeks or so. I will post more on that later.

I know some nice events are planned for First Friday in February at the Emporium , particularly an art show conducted by two friends, Bobbie Crews and Mike Berry, so whatever we do will not be in conflict with that.

Also, I understand that the January 2010 First Friday will be held this Friday January 8, 2010 and I have received information from URBhana about some events planned there as well.

I was also told that some folks had a little too much fun on the 100 Block New Years Eve from some of the vandalism and pranks discovered January 1. Luckily to my knowledge nobody got injured even though the window for URHbana was broken.

The 200 block has been repaved and, weather permitting, we plan to close off a lane of Summit Hill next Wednesday until Monday to finish up our tie in to the 200 Block of S. Gay Street then.

When that work is completed we hope to begin the final phase here by reconstructing the S. Gay Street/W. Vine Avenue intersection.

I was privileged to give a tour of the east and west sides of the 100 Block of S. Gay Street to several members of the Knoxville Fire Department so they could update their preplanning process in case of emergencies. I am always impressed by the professionalism of our Fire Department as well as our Police Department. I know both departments work hard to be proactive in their planning.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday and wish you all well for the next year.

As always, thanks for your interest.