100 Block Construction

100 Block Association Annual Meeting

2011-10-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Please mark your calender tomorrow, October 11, for the annual meeting at the Emporium at 6:00 pm.
New officers will be selected and future initiatives for the Association will be discussed.
I will be there along with other folks from the City to update folks on the Block as to recent developments.
I hope to see you there.

Pictures

2011-05-19T10:40:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Southern Constructors for their work on the project and for providing me with these pictures.

In the next few weeks we will be working on the remaining punchlist items. Thanks for your interest in the 100 Block of S. Gay Street.

Parking

2011-03-01T05:33:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to give you a quick update on some parking issues for the 100 Block of S. Gay Street.

This week we plan to lower the price for parking on the Jackson Avenue Parking lot to bring this cost in line with the meters on Gay Street. The new cost will be .50 an hour or $4 for the entire day. Monthly parking rates will remain at $40.

Also we are in the process of placing a Commercial Loading Zone sign on the western side of the 200 Block where it is presently designated "No Parking". We are mindful here of the central garbage location we have agreed to for the block. At some point, KAT may need this space for a Trolley stop but we wanted to put these spaces back in service. In addition to loading and unloading these spaces will be available for free after 6 and on weekends as are other commercial loading spaces.

Lastly, we continue to work on getting the two parking kiosks for the 100 Block. I have scheduled a meeting today to get a status report.

Thanks for your interest and don't forget First Friday this week. Also the Mardi Growl parade and event (http://www.cityofknoxville.org/Press_Releases/Content/2011/0211.asp) will be Saturday starting at our new Downtown Dog Park and ending at Market Square.

Update - February 10, 2011

2011-02-10T08:06:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone. I hope this year has been kind so far.

I have just a little news I thought some of you would want to know about. The 100 Block Association has now formed and I would encourage those on the 100 Block to get involved there.
Since I have now taken over the Downtown Coordinator duties, I am attending their meetings and I know your representatives there are doing some good work.

One area I heard a lot about while our construction was going on was short term parking. I am pleased to announce that we now have installed two 15 minute parking meters in the Gay Street Viaduct (see picture below) which will be enforced 24/7 including weekends. This is a switch as all parking after 6:00pm and on weekends had been free.

If this accomplishes our goals here, the thought is that we may add a few other meters around town. I have also discussed maybe having a spot or two on the Cradle of Country Music Park area parking lot.

I have also been in discussion about making the current "no parking" area on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street a Commercial Loading area. That way it would be available for parking after 6:00pm and on weekends until such time at the KAT Trolley needs that space. After attending the KAT meetings, it appears to me to be in the fall before that occurs. Of course we have also agreed to create a central space for garbage collection in this part of the 200 Block so we will need to clearly mark off that area.

Some other changes we are discussing, and I believe will happen soon, is to reduce the parking fee on the Jackson Avenue lot. I will post more on this when it happens.

The kiosks planned for the 100 Block are still being discussed and I will continue to pursue that and will let you all know when that happens. The units we hope to order are basically identical to the one installed on the Jackson Avenue parking lot.

I have been in contact with the Service Department and KPD about the dog waste situation and new signs and barrels for the waste have been installed. Everyone of the block needs to take responsibility for their pets, obviously, to help us all keep this area one of the premier spots in the City.

Below is a picture I took of the Block from the Viaduct.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Tour de Lights has been rescheduled

2010-12-15T12:19:00.000-08:00

Tour de Lights has been rescheduled to Tuesday, December 21 at 7 p.m. due to inclement weather.The location and other details have not changed.
For more information on this year's Tour de Lights go to, http://www.knoxtrans.org/tourdelights/index.htm.
Please help us spread the word!
We’ll be passing through the 100 Block twice. You can help win the Most Welcoming Neighborhood award by being outside when the group goes by (perhaps singing carols) or decorating your balcony/building. Riders should be coming through the 100 Block the first time between 7:10 and 7:20 p.m., and the second time between 8 and 8:20 p.m. (these are very much rough estimates!)
Last year there were more than 450 bicyclists, and we expect to have many more this year. For more info, call the Bicycle Program at 215-3815 or email kelley.segars@knoxtrans.org

Construction Update- December 9, 2010

2010-12-09T10:08:00.000-08:00

As most of you know, the 100 Block of S. Gay Street Streetscapes Project is just about finished. With the delivery and installation of the sod (see picture below) near the Cradle of Country Music Park, the work has been completed.

We are still compiling a punch list of smaller issues to be resolved but I think we can all be proud of what we accomplished here. Everyone worked together through some pretty tough times and I am grateful for all of the patience and understanding on all sides throughout this difficult project.

I attended a meeting of the 100 Block Association this week and they plan to archive this blog for future reference.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Arts & Culture Alliance Presents "Con_struct" by Aaron Shugart-Brown

2010-11-22T05:45:00.000-08:00

Arts & Culture Alliance Presents "Con_struct"
by Aaron Shugart-Brown

(11/19/2010/Knoxville) - The Arts & Culture Alliance is pleased to present a new exhibition entitled "Con_struct: Revisiting the 100 Block Construction Project" by Aaron Shugart-Brown, opening Wednesday, December 8, at 5:30 PM in the Balcony of the Emporium Center. In December of 2007, Shugart-Brown opened Unarmed Merchants, an artisan gallery located on the 100 Block of Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. Just fourteen months later, in February of 2009, the City of Knoxville began an extensive, eighteen-month construction project on the 100 and 200 Blocks of Gay Street to rebuild the support structures, relocate and realign all utilities, and replace surface-level streetscape features. During those eighteen months, the construction affected every aspect of Shugart-Brown's life, including business, personal relationships with family and friends, and the art he created. "Con_struct" represents the body of work created by Shugart-Brown during that time as well as abstract photographs of the construction project itself. During the time he spent adjacent to the epicenter of the 100 Block construction project, a question emerged: was there an overarching aesthetic that could be derived from the process itself? Through all of the noise, dust, and debris, Shugart-Brown challenged himself to find the raw beauty of such an intrusive element. "I wanted to get right up in the face of my assailant and document a counterpoint to the frustration I experienced," says Shugart-Brown. "Using the tools of photography, mixed media paintings, and watercolor, I wanted a new visual language to emerge that would help describe this experience. With the final phase of the 100 Block Construction ending just two weeks before my exhibition opens, I feel that this show is a good, encompassing epilogue to a story many people are glad is finished." For more information on Shugart-Brown, visit http://www.shugartbrown.com/.

For more information on the 100 Block Construction Project, visit http://100blockconstructionknox.blogspot.com.

"Con_struct" will be displayed in the Balcony at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, from December 8-23, 2010. An opening reception will take place on Wednesday, December 8, from 5:30-8:30 PM. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. For more information, please contact the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543 or visit http://www.knoxalliance.com/.

About the Arts & Culture Alliance

The Arts & Culture Alliance serves and supports a diverse community of artists, arts organizations, and cultural institutions. The Alliance receives financial support from the Tennessee Arts Commission (http://www.arts.state.tn.us/ ). Special thanks to
Bluegill Creative: Design and Marketing Communications (http://www.bluegillcreative.com/ ).

4th annual Tour de Lights bike ride

2010-11-22T05:42:00.000-08:00

Please note the following unique event:

4th annual Tour de Lights bike ride
Thursday, Dec 16
Ride leaves at 7 p.m.
Krutch Park/Market St.

Join us for the 4th annual holiday bike tour of downtown Knoxville and historic neighborhoods. Riders are encouraged get creative with lights and costumes for the Decorating Contest. Hot cocoa and treats provided by Mast General Store after the ride. All ages welcome for this short, casual-paced ride. Sponsored by the City of Knoxville and the TPO Bicycle Program. More details, route and photos from past years at http://www.knoxtrans.org/tourdelights/index.htm
We’ll be passing through the 100 Block twice. You can help win the Most Welcoming Neighborhood award by being outside when the group goes by (perhaps singing carols) or decorating your balcony/building. Riders should be coming through the 100 Block the first time between 7:10 and 7:20 p.m., and the second time between 8 and 8:20 p.m. (these are very much rough estimates!)

Last year there were more than 450 bicyclists, and we expect to have many more this year. For more info, call the Bicycle Program at 215-3815 or email kelley.segars@knoxtrans.org

Construction Update- November 18, 2010

2010-11-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, we have now reopened both the 100 and 200 Blocks of S. Gay Street and the trees are installed.

The above picture is of the tree delivery.

Above is a picture of the first two trees in place at Jackson Avenue.

The picture below is of the completed street. I think it looks fantastic.

Early next week the Cradle of Country Music Park area will have some work with the sod being installed. Some of the new trees were installed in this area as well.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Construction Update- November 10, 2010

2010-11-10T06:24:00.000-08:00

Please note the following press release:

PRESS RELEASE

The 100 Block of Gay Street will be closed beginning Monday, November 15, so crews can install about two dozen large elm trees along the street. The 200 Block will also be closed later during the week for the landscaping effort.

The work – the final phase of the Gay Street Streetscapes Project - is expected to take five days, or through November 19, to complete. The trees are 20-25 feet high and contractors will be using heavy equipment to plant them in tree wells already installed in the sidewalks.

While the street will be closed, pedestrians will still have access along the 100 and 200 blocks during the project. The work will begin on the 100 Block and travel south, toward the heart of downtown, and into the 200 block as the week progresses.

Both blocks will not be closed at the same time.

Crews with Southern Constructors began the Gay Street Streetscapes project in the spring of 2009 and over the next 15 months replaced the street and replaced and widened the sidewalks on the 100 and 200 blocks.

Contractors also renovated the bridge-like supporting structure that has held the 100 Block of Gay Street suspended one story above the original street for nearly a century and upgraded the utility infrastructure along both blocks.

Most of the work was completed by August but contractors needed to wait until the more favorable fall conditions for tree planting.

In addition, the Contractor will begin sodding the area around the Cradle of Country Music Park and will begin replanting the planter boxes. This work will finish up our project except for a few loose ends the City will begin working on.

Please don't forget the Veterans Day Parade at 10:30 on Thursday November 11, 2010. The route will once again bring the Parade down the 100 and 200 Blocks of S. Gay Street ending on Depot Street.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and encouragement throughout this project. It was truly a team effort by all.

Halloween Block Party

2010-10-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

From our friends at Slamdot:

Time
Friday, October 29 · 5:30pm - 10:00pm

Location
100 Block of Gay Street, Downtown Knoxville
108 S. Gay Street
Knoxville, TN

Created By
Slamdot

You're invited to Nightmare on Gay Street, a family-friendly Halloween event hosted by Slamdot, on Friday, October 29th, from 5:30 pm to 10 pm, on the 100 Block of Gay Street in downtown Knoxville, with a private Haunted Open House at the Slamdot Store for our customers and friends.For all those souls who dare, come join your fellow humans...dead or alive...and bring your young to partake in the night of fright and eve of enchan...tment, where we hope you'll escape unscathed to tell your own twisted tale of....- Live music from WE Have a Tradition- Special performance of "Thriller" by Momentum Dance Lab, Knoxville's newest modern dance company founded in 2007 (learn more at http://www.momentumdancelab.com/)- Food vendors, including Bread of Heaven Catering BBQ (http://www.breadofheavencatering.com/), Larry's Coney Island, Rita's Ice (http://www.ritasknoxville.com/), kettle corn and lemonade from Steamboat Sandwiches!- Ghost story read by Mayor Tim Burchett at 6:30!- Downtown candy crawl- Costume contests for all ages- A pumpkin carving contest among downtown businesses- Creepy critters from Ijams Nature Center- A Vampire Castle bounce house- Medieval swordfighting demonstrations by the Lukasbruder fighting guild- Kid's Halloween games, including Candy Corn Guess, Mummy Bowling and Guess the Monster Parts- Spooky Snapshots by Jennie Andrews Photography- A mystical magician- Wisdom Wagon fortune telling- Monster face painting- Trick-or-Tattoos- And much more!For the official Nightmare on Gay Street flyer, please visit http://www.nightmareongaystreet.com/, and share this with anyone you know, including zombies, ghosts, goblins, werewolves, vampires, witches, mummies or any other supernatural beings you may be acquainted with. And a special thanks to Meadow View Greenhouse and Garden Center (http://www.meadowviewgreenhouse.com/) for contributing to the Halloween decor.At the Slamdot Store, we'll be having a private Haunted Open House for our close friends and customers. We will have beer, wine, light refreshments, Halloween music, and a bone-chilling scene to mingle and network with others, along with some fangtastic door prizes! Food will be available to purchase outside during the Nightmare on Gay Street event. All you should bring is a costume and your business cards, although neither are required. The Slamdot Store is located at 108 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902.Please RSVP no later than Monday, October 25th, to rsvp@slamdot.com with your name and the number of additional guests you will be bringing.*NOTE: We're requiring all those attending Slamdot's Haunted Open House to RSVP, as we're limiting entry to those who are signed up to come. However, all are welcome to come out for the Nightmare on Gay Street event! The Slamdot Store is located at 108 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902

Also please note that the 100 Block and 200 Block will be closed to vehicle traffic from 3pm until 11pm and there will be no onstreet parking all day Friday.

http://www.nightmareongaystreet.com/
http://tnjn.com/2010/oct/20/nightmare-on-gay-street-brings/

City People's 2010 Downtown Homes Tour

2010-10-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendar for the City People 2010 Downtown Homes Tour on 10/10/10 -- Sunday, October 10. The tour will begin at 10 a.m., and 10 beautiful downtown living spaces will be on the self-guided tour this year. Advanced tickets (through 11pm, October 9th) will be -- you guessed it -- just $10 and can also be purchased on-line at our website www.citypeople.org. Advanced tickets will also be available at Abode on Market Square and Bliss Home on Market Square and at their west Knoxville location through Oct. 9.

Day-of tickets are $15.

We have a great line-up of home including two newly opened buildings - the Daylight on Union Avenue and Southeastern Glass on Jackson Avenue. Other Buildings include the Mill Agent, the Carson, Lerner Lofts, Emporium, Phoenix, and the Bungalows on Market Square, and individual residences on Gay Street and Jackson Avenue.

More than 700 people participated in the 2009 Downtown Homes Tour, touring furnished residences of all types and sizes throughout Downtown Knoxville. Units were housed in everything from carefully restored historical buildings to loft warehouse space to beautiful new construction. Many of downtown's current residents were introduced to urban living through one of the City People Downtown Homes Tours, helping Knoxville's center city grow to more than 2,000 residents over the last few years! Proceeds from Downtown Homes Tour are reinvested back into Knoxville's center city community through grants to downtown causes such as Shakespeare on the Square, James White Fort, Market Square Farmers Market, and more.

Hola Festival 2010

2010-10-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

What: Hola Festival 2010
When: Saturday, October 9, 2010 - 11:00am
Where: 100 Block of Gay Street
Hola Festival 2010 comes to the 100 Block of Gay Street this Saturday, Oct. 9 from 11AM to 8PM. Hola Festival celebrates diversity as part of Hispanic Heritage Month and features authentic music and dance performances, food, cultural exhibits, and a Parade of Nations.

http://www.holaknoxville.org/festival/happenings.php

Block Party

2010-09-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

Please don't forget this event!

Friday October 1, 2010
Block off the Night to Celebrate the Arts
100 Block Party - South Gay Street
5:30 pm to 9 pm
Family Friendly Fun!! Free Entertainment, Live Music & Food Vendors in celebration of the reopening of the 100 Block of S. Gay Street. Come experience Cirque Du Gay Street featuring trapeze artist, aerial dancing on silks, fire eating, fire breathing and Poi. There will also be performances by Momentum Dance Lab, Contemporary Rock Band "We have a Tradition", an Award winning performance of "Thriller" and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet. Celebrate the reopening of the 100 Block by dancing in the street.

Jackson Avenue Parking Lot

2010-09-10T14:52:00.000-07:00

We plan to reopen the Jackson Avenue Parking lot this weekend.

Of course it will be free parking for the weekend as we have for other parking downtown.

The City of Knoxville will begin charging for parking in the Jackson Avenue Parking Lot beginning on September 13 at 6:00am – though parking will still be free there at night and on weekends.

The Public Building Authority and Republic Parking will manage the Jackson Avenue Parking Lot for the city and will offer paid daily and monthly parking.Rates will be $1 an hour, for a maximum daily rate of $8, or monthly parking is available for $40. For more information on rates please contact Republic Parking at 865-524-0602 or PBA at 865-595-3350.

September 1, 2010 Update

2010-09-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

Please remember the renovations to the Jackson Avenue Parking lot beginning today. Details were provided in the previous post.

Almost all of the construction has now been completed with only some landscaping remaining.

As we noted earlier, Gay Street will be closed for an additional two days in order to plant the large trees. This will likely occur in late September/ early October.

The Block Party is scheduled for October 1, 2010 and will coincide with the October First Friday.

Please mark your calenders for this exciting event.

The 100 Block Association has been meeting for organizational purposes and I would encourage folks on the block to help out and participate.

Congratulations to the folks at Slamdot on their five year anniversary. The had a very nice event at their business yesterday and I am sure they would be happy to visit with any of you.

Of course the September First Friday is this week and this will be the first time we have had this event with the road completely reopened. I hope to see you there.

Thanks for your interest.

Jackson Avenue Parking Lot

2010-08-24T05:42:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE

The City of Knoxville will begin charging for parking in the Jackson Avenue Parking Lot beginning on or around September 10 – though parking will still be free there at night and on weekends.

The lot will be closed temporarily beginning September 1, for cleaning and re-striping and to allow the city to install parking equipment needed for the switch to paid parking. All vehicles must be removed from that lot by 7 a.m. on Sept. 1.

Currently the city offers free parking in the Jackson Avenue lot – which includes roughly 200 spaces - and has since it purchased the property last year in the midst of the Gay Street Streetscapes project.

The city will continue to offer free parking at the 200-space Old City Lot located nearby beneath the James White Parkway.

The new parking management policy is aimed at supporting businesses located on the 100 Block and North Gay Street areas by making sure there are spaces available for people patronizing those establishments during the day. There is concern that if the city doesn’t charge for parking a growing number of the spaces will be used by downtown workers who park there throughout the day.
That would leave a limited number of spaces for customers and clients of businesses in the vicinity. The city had been asked by some residents and business owners in the 100 Block area about the issue.
“When the city was approached to create a management structure in the lot one of the things we heard repeatedly was that both businesses and residents are helped when there is consistent turnover and availability,” said Hannah Parker, the city’s policy analyst and downtown coordinator. “While we elected not to charge for parking throughout the Gay Street construction project, we are doing so now in an effort to continue to spur redevelopment along Jackson and Gay, which is quickly becoming one of the most important east/west corridors in downtown.”
As part of the upcoming renovations the city will include a payment kiosk that accepts coins, bills and is capable of conducting secure credit card transactions.

The Public Building Authority and Republic Parking will manage the Jackson Avenue Parking Lot for the city and will offer paid daily and monthly parking.

Rates will be $1 an hour, for a maximum daily rate of $8, or monthly parking is available for $40. For more information on rates please contact Republic Parking at 865-524-0602 or PBA at 865-595-3350.

Construction Update - August 12, 2010

2010-08-12T10:39:00.001-07:00

The 100 Block of S. Gay Street has now reopened without any hitches that I am aware of. The next few pictures are of the roadway just before it was opened for traffic.

The next two pictures are of the road after opening. As we all expected, it is already getting heavy use.

The sidewalks are looking very nice as well

I could not resist posting a sketch of the above picture using an app on my Iphone.

The parking meter kiosks for the 100 Block are still being ordered and before those are installed we will begin an education process. The same machine will be used on the Jackson Avenue parking lot. This lot is set to be cleaned and restriped in early September. I will post more on this at a later date.

The large 20-25 foot Elm trees will be planted sometime in October and will require that we shut the road back down for about two days. I will work with folks on the Block to get the best time for that work.

The plants in the planters will be replaced soon as many have obviously not survived the heat and the landscaping around the Cradle of Country Music Park is ongoing.

About all that remains to be done on the Block is some cleanup and more caulking.

The Block Party planning is continuing with the projected date of the the Party being September 10, 2010. Also, the 100 block organizational meeting is at 5:30 PM on August 18th at the Emporium building.

Finally, it is long overdue to thank the folks who got the job done for us here.

Terry Snelling was our Job Superintendent from Southern Constructors and we were so lucky to have him in charge. You often hear the term "herding cats" and that is exactly what this complicated project was like. Lest we forget, we had one of the wettest years last year, one of the coldest stretches, and now one of the hottest summers on record. This combined with all if the redesigns and and unknown issues resulted in a monumental task just to get the job done anywhere near the projected date. Terry methodically worked through each challenge and issue getting the right folks at the right times with the right equipment to handle each task. On a job like this , the Superintendent is also responsible for each of the subcontractors. At various times on this job we had well over 50 folks working on various tasks. While all of this was going on Terry always kept an eye out for how it might effect the folks on the Block. Whenever he knew he was going to create a hardship, he went out of his way to find something he could do to make it up to folks if he could. You don't often see that type of caring on these types of jobs.

Terry and his crew actually became a part of the fabric of the Block and went out of their way many times to assist anyone there needing help. His folks were courteous and hard working at all times. Alex, J.R., Jerry and many others who were out there almost all of the time really went above the call of the duty, I thought, in their dealings with the public. It is a testament to the folks at Southern Constructors that they have folks in their employ with this type of respect. Thanks to Richard Huskey, Owner, and to Mike Gray who handled the financial issues and project management for Southern. Those guys all did a great job.

Also many of the subs were equally as helpful on this job. Blount Excavating had most of the heavy equipment and Roger Williams was usually the guy in charge and operating the equipment for them. He was the big guy out there sometimes directing crews but also oftentimes directing traffic, or helping folks move in, or giving directions to folks, or helping folks park correctly. He and Len Smith and his crews played a big role in our success here.

Massey Electric folks also did a great job working with us and KUB. Thanks to Mike and Andy and the rest of those crews as well.

From the Public Sector end, we really had to have a lot of coordination with the various utilities particularly. Everette Noe, Gordon Bryant, and Bill Grady were the engineers who really helped make it happen. Jason Cole with KUB was their inspector and Jason's assistance was really invaluable to our timeline.

Andrew Luttrell was the Inspector on site from City Engineering and he was another integral part to getting this job done. His timely suggestions and expertise at critical times played a huge role in our success.

Robin Tipton was the City Engineer responsible for this project and she was just remarkable. I had worked with Robin some many years ago but her knowledge and caring and thoughtfulness here really made a huge difference and I was so impressed with her.

As a surveyor myself, I must acknowledge the huge contributions made by our City Surveyors, Russ, Rusty and Craig. So many problems were avoided by their project knowledge and redesigns in the field.

Others involved in the City were Engineers Tom Clabo, Brent Johnson, and Director Steve King.

Folks in the City of Knoxville should be proud that we have such a professional staff on board.

Folks in my shop were also a great resource and those folks would include Bill Lyons, Sr. Director of Policy and Communications, Hannah Parker, Anne Wallace, Bob Whetsel, and Randy Kenner.

Folks involved from Vaughn and Melton included John Kenst, Andrew Hutsell, and David Harrell to name a few. Ross/Fowler had the landscape architecture part of the job and Mike Fowler was our resource there.

Mickey Mallone, Director of Special Events for the City, Michelle Hummel of the CBID, Bobby Hubbs, Mark Fortner, and Brad Anders of KPD were also folks who assisted us.

There are, of course, many others to thank but I have already gone on too long.

I would be remiss if I did not thank Mayor Haslam and the members of City Council for having the courage to move this complicated yet much needed project forward.

Most of all the thanks go to all of the folks on the 100 Block who lived through the dust, noise, weather, utility outages, unknown pathways, and general disruptions of their lives. This is one of the most densely populated ares of our region so the impact here was considerable.

Your patience and understanding for the last 18 months has been amazing.

It has been my great honor to get to know many folks on the block and I look forward to continuing those relationships.

All of you made this project work so thank you all for a job well done.

My posts here will probably not be as frequent but as issues arise I will continue to try to keep you informed. Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can ever help you in any way.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Good News

2010-08-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

I just talked to the Contractor and we should have the roadway on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street reopened in the morning. I will post more details later.

Update: The 100 Block of S. Gay Street is now open as of 8:30 this morning.

Construction Update - August 6, 2010

2010-08-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

We are beginning to finish up the project this week by installing street signage and bike racks. The striping and other markings should be in place by tonight. The anticipated street opening is for sometime next week.

Of course there are other details such as caulking, etc. that will still be in process after the street opens, but the vast majority of the work has been completed at this point.

Some of the benches were realigned to avoid conflicts with utility boxes but overall street furniture has been placed exactly as we had planned without issue.

The holly trees for the Cradle of Country Music Park arrived and have now been planted with pin oaks and other vegetation still to come.

Many folks have expressed concern about the existing plants in the larger planters and we are addressing those issues. The landscaper has told us that they are all suffering from shock from being planted in the heat. Let me assure everyone that they are getting plenty of water. The landscaper is watering them every morning and the City is watering them three times a week.

The landscaper, who has guaranteed the plantings, assures us that he feels they are still alive and hopefully will come back out soon. In the event any of the plants fail to survive, he will replace them in early fall.

The timeline for the planting of the large trees on the block is still in discussion.

Please join me for First Friday tonight downtown and particularly on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street. Folks on the block depend on your continued patronage.

Also please note that the city of Knoxville is looking for a design for a banner for its arts district. The winning design will go on 26 banners hung from street poles primarily along Gay Street's 100 and 200 blocks. Deadline for digital submissions is Aug. 20.

Artists may submit up to three original designs. Submissions should include a solid color background and design using up to four colors. Designs will be juried by the city of Knoxville's Public Art Committee.

More guidelines and an application are at http://www.knoxalliance.com/ or interested artists can contact Suzanne Cada at the Arts & Culture Alliance, 865-523-7543 or sc@knoxalliance.com.

Plans are continuing to be made for the Block Party tentatively scheduled for September 10, 2010. A brown bag lunch meeting will be held at the Emporium at noon on Monday, August 9 to discuss the planned event.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - July 29, 2010

2010-07-29T07:21:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, Jackson Avenue has reopened and we are continuing to make progress in the final stages of the project. Bike racks and signage should be installed next week and the final striping of the parking stalls and roadway will occur soon as well.

Please be aware that the parking areas along the 200 Block will no longer be available after the roadway is restriped. The west side of the 200 Block of S. Gay Street will become a KAT bus stop and the eastern side will become a commercial loading zone as our plans have long indicated.

There will be also be two additional loading zones located on the 100 Block.

My friend, John Guston, sent me several photos taken around the time of the ribbon cutting.

The pictures below, I think, give a clear view of the improvements made. When the new trees arrive in early fall, the look will be complete. Additional plantings are to be placed in the planters soon as well.

We have removed the concrete in several areas of the roadway and have now replaced those sections with new concrete. It takes a little time for the concrete to cure and for the joints to be resealed with caulk, probably into the first week of August at least.

I know folks are always interested in the underground so below are two pictures taken under the sidewalk on the western side of the street.

The Contractor is removing his office trailer and the staging materials from the Jackson Avenue parking lot and we continue to plan for the rehabilitation of that lot.

Maintenance of the stairway at the Gay Street Viaduct is also in discussion.

Please remember that KPD plans to begin enforcement of parking violations once again on the O.P. Jenkins parking lot area beginning Monday, August 2, 1010.

The Block Party planning committee will meet for a brown bag lunch at noon on August 9, 2010 at the Emporium to discuss the event, tentatively planned for September 10, 2010.

As always, thanks for your interest.

O. P. Jenkins Parking Lot area

2010-07-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

Since the parking lot has now been restriped and the extra meters have been installed for the additional parking spaces created during our Streetscapes project on the 100 Block, we will once again begin enforcing parking violations here beginning Monday, August 2, 2010. Please help us get the word out to those interested. Thanks

Construction Update - July 22, 2010

2010-07-21T10:22:00.001-07:00

Thanks to all who attended the ribbon cutting on the 100 Block Monday. The Block Party committee is continuing to make plans for the larger event now tentatively planned for September 10, 2010. Please contact the City Office of Special Events if you have ideas or want to be included in our celebration.

This week the Contractor is working on correcting the issues we have with the concrete surface and that has included having to use the concrete saw to remove some of the sections of pavement. This is a noisy and dusty process as you all know but we hope to get this completed by the end of the week and pour new concrete shortly thereafter. Then we will need a least a couple of weeks for the concrete to cure so we are thinking now that the road will probably reopen a little after the first of August.

There are still many items to finish on our punch list and we will continue to work on those issues after the road is opened. Certainly caulking all of the areas will take some time.

Many of you have asked about bike racks and we have those ready to be installed. Sometime soon we will begin installing the street signs and that will involve drilling holes in the sidewalk so we plan to drill the holes and install the bike racks at the same time. We were very happy to have the planter boxes with greenery by the ribbon cutting but even more plants will be going in as well. The trees may be delivered late next month and we will wait for the optimum time to plant those. Those are 20-25 foot elms as I understand it.

The sod for the Cradle of Country Music Park should also arrive finally next month so we can begin to finish that bit of work.

We are beginning to have issues with folks parking on the 100 Block, particularly at night. We have instructed KPD to keep a close watch on this and if you park there you will be cited and/or towed. We have placed no parking signs there, but folk are removing the barricades and entering the work zone. We all want this project to finish and have the road reopened as soon as possible and this is the type of situation that could cause real delays.

We have finally reopened Jackson Avenue for traffic a few days later than we had planned. We replaced the asphalt that was there before we began our work a couple of weeks ago. This asphalt does cover up a small portion of the brickwork but this is the way it has been for many years and is a result of the elevation of the Gay Street Viaduct. This issue will likely get revisited in the next couple of years when the Jackson Avenue Ramps undergo reconstruction.

The Contractor is beginning to remove his construction materials from the Jackson Avenue parking lot in anticipation of the lot reconstruction in August. The picture above is of a camper moved onto the lot a week or so ago. The Contractor came in early one night this week to discover the occupant here had "borrowed" an extension cord to hook into the Construction trailer for power. Obviously our parking lot is not a campground so we had this removed.

Last, congratulations to our friend Stanton Webster of Nama on the birth of his daughter, Sophia Estelle Webster.

Thanks for your interest

Construction Update - July 15, 2010

2010-07-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

Please don't forget the ribbon cutting now scheduled for July 19, 2010 at 11:00 am. Most of the work on the block is expected to be completed by then but the actual final opening of the road through the 100 Block has now become problematic. We always have had a final deadline of August 15 but had optimistically scheduled the ribbon cutting based on our projections three weeks ago. Some recent issues that have been discovered as we begin our final engineering inspections have forced us to delay the time to have the road completely opened, however. We had hoped to be able to open the road and keep at least one lane open but some extra work is required in both lanes so we felt it was best just to complete all of the work at once. The effect of this is that we will not be able to open the road permanently on July 19 as we had hoped.

We all want it to be right when we are finished here so spending a little extra time now seems to make a lot of sense.

Thanks to all of you for attending the 100 Block meeting this week. We discussed parking issues including signage on the Gay Street Viaduct and City Engineering is investigating those issues for me. Commercial loading zones and possible 15 minute parking spaces also had discussion. This is an issue that exists all over downtown and we are in the process of determining a solution that works for everyone.

A Committee is forming to plan the Block party planned for late August or September and this will be coordinated through our Office of Special Events. Contact them if you wish to be included.

Lastly, we were glad to hear that plans are being made to reconstitute the 100 Block Neighbourhood Association. I am sure you will be hearing more about that in the near future. Sean Christman of Slamdot will be heading up this organization.

As most of you know, we have only a little sidewalk work in front of the former VMC building left to finalize and we will finish this up this week. Other than caulking, this will finish up all of the sidewalk work for the project.

We are hoping to have our planter boxes completed but we continue to have delays with our vendors due to Nashville flooding. We plan to install the trees in September and these will be 20' to 30' Elms so the effect should be quite dramatic.

Jackson Avenue will be reopened sometime next week after some paving required to tie back the new construction to the Jackson Avenue ramp (see picture below)

Overall though, I think the block is looking great. The 200 Block has been completed for some time, the street lights are in and are functioning, the street furniture is in place, O.P. Jenkins Parking Lot area has been completely refurbished, Fire Street Alley has been completely rebuilt, and the Cradle of Country Music Park has been expanded. All of the new utilities are in place and are on line, and the underground areas have new pavement.

The picture above was sent to me by a friend and was taken from a book he received recently.

The book, "Knoxville - A Pictorial History", has this photograph and the accompanying text:

"In 1869, S.T. Post and Son started making wagons and carriages. In 1978, Post and Company is still in business, but they make truck bodies nowadays. This photo, taken from Summitt Hill in 1872, shows Post's original location. Gay Street goes from left to right in the foreground. Peabody School is the large cupolaed building just below the left horizon. East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia railroad trains - now the site of the Southern railroad yards - are below the Peabody. The circus was held just above the pond near the center of the picture. Central Avenue (originally Crozier Street) can just be seen halfway up on the right behind the white house."

Thanks again to all of the folks on the bock for their patience and understanding throughout this complicated project.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Note: If you would like to be removed from these blog updates, simply reply to this e-mail with a removal request in the subject line.

Construction Update - July 8, 2010

2010-07-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

Construction crews are continuing their work in the intersection of Jackson Avenue and Gay Street and are finishing up with the colored concrete section in front of the Emporium.

The picture below is of one of the two seating areas on the widened sidewalk in front of the Emporium.

Thanks to Scott Williams and Donald Jenkins of City Engineering for helping me understand the following two pictures. The first is of the reconstruction of Gay Street around 1917 and shows the first columns to support the new sidewalk being constructed on the west side in front of the former VMC building on Gay Street.

The picture below is of the intersection of Jackson and Gay Street probably in the late 1890's. It is interesting to note that this was before the Emporium was built. The lower right corner of the photo shows the depression in which the Emporium Building was finally constructed. Note the wooden fence along Jackson to keep folks from falling in the steep depression.

Also it is interesting to note the two railroad buildings that no longer exist just below Jackson Avenue.

Please don't forget the 100 Block meeting planned for 5:30pm on July 13 at the Emporium.

Topics of discussion will include the Block Party, 100 Block Association, and any construction issues.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - July 1, 2010

2010-06-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

We are happy to finally announce that the ribbon cutting for the Streetscapes Project along the 100 and 200 blocks of S. Gay Street will be held on the morning of July 19, 2010. We had previously announced the date as July 20 but have now moved it up one day (a revised press release will be going out soon with the time). I will announce more about this as the day draws closer.

We will most certainly still have occasional lane closures for at least another month along the block but we are hopeful that at least one lane can remain open from here on out.

We will not plant the trees until the fall, probably in November and given their size, we will have to have some lane closures then as well.

The sod we had ordered for the Cradle of Country Music Park was to come from Nashville but because of the flooding there, this has been delayed so we still will have that bit of work to do.

Of course First Friday is July 2 and we hope to have much of the colored concrete poured on the eastern sidewalk by then. We must wait, however, until we begin our work on the final section of sidewalk in front of the Emporium so we can make sure the colors all are uniform with the concrete on Jackson Avenue.

The Jackson intersection will receive the same colored concrete treatments as the intersection of Vine Avenue and Gay Street. This will necessitate one remaining two week closure of this intersection beginning July 5, 2010 at 7:00 am.

For more information on First Friday events and on some fine organizations, please follow these links:

http://knoxvillefirstfriday.com/wp/
http://www.knoxalliance.com/
http://knoxvillemarketsquare.com/

Below are pictures of the Emporium building shortly after the road was reopened in 1919 and the next picture is of some of the business that went on there.

Since we have been able to move more quickly on this final bit of work, we will not have the parking kiosks in place by the ribbon cutting so we will simply stripe off the parking stalls and allow free parking until we can get these units installed.

Also, we apologize for all of the confusion over the misaligned parking meters on the O. P. Jenkins parking lot. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we can get that situation rectified but I am happy that KPD will not be enforcing parking meter violations here until we are able to restripe that lot. This work is now tentatively scheduled for July 11th. If all goes according to plan, we will post signs about this on Friday July 9, 2010 and clean the lot on the evening of July 10, 2010.

I am planning another 100 Block neighborhood meeting to be held at 5:30pm on Tuesday July 13 at the Emporium. I really hope many of you can attend to help us plan for the opening celebration and also to begin discussion about an 100 Block Neighborhood organization. Of course we will also review our progress on the project and the next steps until completion.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable 4th of July Holiday. I know many excellent events are planned downtown .

Thanks for your interest

Construction Update - June 17, 2010

2010-06-17T06:32:00.001-07:00

As promised, the Contractor has now poured most of the concrete for the roadway and is beginning to pour some of the colored concrete at the intersection of Jackson Avenue at Gay Street.

Probably beginning next week we will start with the colored concrete topcoat, beginning on the eastern sidewalk where we ended a few weeks ago. Again, this work must be done at night beginning around 7:30pm. The roadway itself will be available for travel with entrances created into the effected doorways.

On July 6 we plan to shut down the Jackson Avenue intersection once again to finish up this bit of work. This intersection will receive the same colored concrete treatments as the other intersections.

As many of you have noticed, the street lights on both sides of the street are now in place and are energized. We are still working to get all of the bulbs functioning correctly however.

Below is a another picture of the 1919 construction efforts here.

I am in continued discussion with the Contractor about start times and noise so hopefully we can do better in that regard. I really believe that in another month we will be substantially finished with the major construction so please hang in there with us just a little longer.

Our friends at Slamdot wanted me to remind you of the following event tonight: Slamdot will be hosting a Farragut/West Knox Chamber of Commerce networking event on Thursday, June 17th, from 5 pm to 7 pm at the Slamdot Store downtown, located at 108 S. Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902. Everyone is welcome!

I am planning to set up another neighborhood meeting around the middle of July to discuss progress as well as to get ideas on plans for the Streetscapes opening Block party and ribbon cutting. I hope many of you can be there because we need your input. We are also discussing the possibility of banners being placed on the street light poles as we have done in other parts of the City.

I will be on hiatus next week but will also check on progress and if anything major occurs I will post a brief message here.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - June 10, 2010

2010-06-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

As complicated and challenging as this Streetscapes Project has been, the original construction must have been equally as daunting as evidenced by the following picture pre 1919.

Of course below is a picture of the completed look after 1919 completion.

We have now reopened Jackson Avenue upon completion of utility work. Unfortunately we must close Jackson Avenue one more time for approximately two weeks, probably beginning on the Monday after First Friday in July, to finish repaving this area.

We have also finished the last section of sidewalk on the western side of S. Gay Street (see next two pictures).

Street lights have been installed on both sides of the street and the lights are energized on the eastern section.We hope to have all of the street lights turned on by the end of next week.

The road work is now coming along at a rapid pace and by the end of next week we are hoping to have all of the concrete poured for the roadway.

Sometime around the week of June 21 we will begin finishing the sidewalk sections with the colored concrete. This work will be done primarily at night beginning around 7:30pm as the concrete is temperature sensitive. This pour of concrete should be set up by the next morning. After we get a few sections poured we will have a real good idea of timing for the remaining sections. While this work is being done, the street itself will be used for pedestrian traffic. We are aware of the noise issues and are not planning to use any equipment except for the concrete trucks and the crews themselves with wheelbarrows. Access will be provided for all of the entrances as we go.

We are getting to a point in construction where we can all see the finish line. Hallelujah!

Thanks for your interest.

Jackson Avenue

2010-06-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

We hope to reopen Jackson Avenue by tomorrow morning, June 9, 2010

Construction Update - June 3, 2010

2010-06-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we have now closed the intersection of Jackson Avenue and Gay Street for about two weeks for some much needed electrical work for KUB.

I thought I would post these two old pictures I had of that intersection. The first picture is of the first reconstruction efforts in 1919 and the second is of a parade downtown after construction.

Of course every one hundred years or so some maintenance is required so here we are again.

The picture below is of some additional trolley rails we encountered.

When the Gay Street Viaduct was reconstructed the grades were such that some of the brickwork for the Jackson Avenue ramps had to be covered with pavement to match grade. The picture below is of some of that brickwork we have uncovered for this phase of work.

Some folks had called with questions about our traffic control signs and those should have been better positioned by now. Please let me know if any problems are noted.

Of course, one of the main issues here is dealing with an old KUB vault in the middle of the intersection.

The 100 Block of S. Gay Street is really starting to take shape now as reflected in the next picture. The structural concrete has been poured back for the sidewalk in front of the restaurants and also for the next section near Unarmed Merchants. The last remaining section is being removed today near Dewhirst Properties and we hope to have that last section back in concrete in about two weeks. In the meantime we will also pour concrete for the remaining roadway sections and also begin the colored concrete topcoat. This bit of work for the topcoat will occur primarily at night after 7:30 and will only involve concrete trucks and wheelbarrows so we hope to make as little noise here as possible. The concrete should set up by the next morning so most folks will not be as inconvenienced.

We have placed a sign at the O. P. Jenkins area parking area intersection with the 200 Block for safety and will continue to monitor its effectiveness.

Lest we forget, we have come a long way on improvements for this area. Thanks to Michael Haynes for providing the following picture of the 100 Block from the early 70's I am guessing.

This weekend will bring many great events downtown with First Friday on June 4 along with our first ever Biscuit Festival so please come downtown and enjoy all of the festivities and make sure to visit all of our merchants while you are here, particularly our friends on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street such as Eleven, URbhana, Unarmed Merchants, Slamdot, and Nama. Ollantay's Havana Nights is undergoing some renovation as I understand it, and will be reopening soon.

Also don't forget Regas Restaurant just on the other side of the Gay Street Viaduct.

Be sure to visit Hola's office at the Emporium while you are there on Friday. Works by Colombian artist Jorge Yances will be on display, along with works by many other artists in other sections of the Emporium and the UT Art Gallery next door.

Of course many other fine artists will have their work displayed at all of the galleries downtown as well and I know they all would appreciate your continued support.

City People will be sponsoring a downtown dash tomorrow as well. Registration 6-7pm outside of Pete's on Union Ave. Race begins at 7:30pm!

Lastly, Slamdot will be hosting a Farragut/West Knox Chamber of Commerce networking event on Thursday, June 17th, from 5 pm to 7 pm at the Slamdot Store downtown, located at 108 S. Gay Street. For more details on this event, please visit the Slamdot website at the link on this page.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - May 27, 2010

2010-05-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

Please don't forget the Jackson Avenue closure scheduled for June 1, 2010 at the Gay Street Viaduct. This closure will completely block off Jackson Avenue there for around two weeks for KUB electrical work. After that time we will reopen the road for a short time before we finish repaving as part of the Streetscapes project.

The sidewalk along Jackson Avenue will not be affected by this temporary closure.

We have really poured a lot of concrete the last few weeks and this week was no exception.The pictures below are of the roadway areas recently restored as well as the sidewalk areas in front of the restaurants.

The Contractor has now moved over into the next to the last section of the western sidewalk. The pictures below were taken in front of the former Harolds deli site and also Unarmed Merchants. We are working on the columns and beams in this area and hope to have the structural concrete poured back here by First Friday on June 4.

Work is continuing on finishing up the entire eastern sidewalk with the colored concrete topcoat. The Contractor has started the process of framing this area beginning at Vine Avenue and will probably begin pouring concrete here next week.

We have ordered traffic control signs to go at the O. P. Jenkins parking lot area where the parking area intersects the 200 Block of S. Gay Street sidewalk and we hope to have those installed this week.

As most of you know, the 100 Block is a very congested work site these days so please help us all out by using caution. We have tried to create several walking paths around the area but with so many paths having been created, there may occasionally be conflicts with vehicles entering the site. We apologize for all of the occasional inconvenience when folks find the pathway they used yesterday now blocked, but to finish the project we need this flexibility.

By First Friday, we hope to have almost half of the 100 Block poured back with structural concrete so please hang in there with us just a little longer.

The look of the 100 Block will change dramatically in the next few weeks and I hope everyone will be pleased with the outcome.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - May 21, 2010

2010-05-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Contractor wanted me to let everyone know he will not be working Saturday, May 22 but will work on Sunday May 23.

He is working on the supporting structures under the western sidewalk and he is at a stage where he applies an epoxy which only has a 24 hr timing so he can proceed with this work on Monday.

Construction Update - May 20, 2010

2010-05-20T06:18:00.001-07:00

We continue to make significant progress on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street despite the periods of rain we have experienced lately. I did not realize how ominous the sky looked when I took the following two pictures.

The western sidewalk work is progressing and we are also pouring concrete for the roadway as we go, progressing from Vine Avenue northward.

Plans are to begin the colored topping for the eastern sidewalk this week. This work will occur primarily after hours so issues of building access can be minimized.

We believe once we get started here, work will proceed quickly.

We are all hoping to have the entire eastern sidewalk section completely finished by First Friday in June.

The picture below is of the rubber coating which is used to set the new colored concrete. Use of this product, along with extensive caulking, will minimize any water issues in the future.

The amount of caulking needed on this job is measured in miles and the 200 Block is currently being caulked between each band and section of sidewalk.

The work on the western sidewalk of the 100 Block is proceeding as we had hoped.

We now have the structural concrete poured for the sidewalk in front of the restaurants and have proceeded into the next section of sidewalk which is in front of Wells Fargo and Unarmed Merchants. Our plans are to have the structural concrete poured back here by First Friday in June as well.

The picture below is of the new sidewalk in front of Nama and Ollantays Havana Nights and also of the new concrete poured for the eastern portion of the roadway. The remaining western section of roadway here will be poured today, as I understand it.

I attended a demonstration for a parking kiosk this week. Our plans are to have two parking kiosks located on each side of the street in the center of the block. The City of Knoxville has not used this technology before for on street parking. The kiosk shown in the picture below is named "Luke" after the scene in Cool Hand Luke where Paul Newman, how should I say this, 'confiscates' the contents of parking meters. This machine is actually pretty amazing in its capabilities. I will post more on this later as we decide which options are used.

This type of meter will also be used on the Jackson Avenue parking lot when it becomes a managed lot this fall.

Thanks to Richard Huskey of Southern Constructors for these nice aerial shots taken of our work site.

There have been several close encounters of pedestrians and cars exiting the O.P. Jenkins parking lot in the 200 Block now that that section of roadway has reopened and City Engineering will be placing some traffic control measures here to better alert drivers and pedestrians to the hazards.

In the meantime, please be very careful here along the eastern sidewalk.

Vine Avenue has now reverted back to its original one way designation without any issues as far as I know.

Lastly, in order to finish up the remaining electrical work, we plan to completely close Jackson Avenue at the Gay Street Viaduct beginning June 1, 2010 for approximately two weeks. We will need one last closure here, probably in July, to finish up. Pedestrian traffic will be maintained at all times.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - May 13, 2010

2010-05-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

Last week proved to be a challenging one in several respects for the 100 Block of S. Gay Street construction project. The two pictures below represent some of the issues we had to deal with.
Please folks, do not park or drive on the sidewalk. I know it is tempting but the glass block panels are not designed for that and the plywood we currently have covering up the openings are certainly not strong enough to support the weight of a vehicle. Thankfully, our Contractor had a fork lift and some massive steel plates nearby to help out here. And by the way, this was just a few hours before First Friday.

We are preparing this week to pour concrete on another section of roadway from Vine Avenue northward. The plan is to pour concrete back for the roadway as both sidewalks are constructed.

The O.P. Jenkins area parking lot was repaved and striped in time for First Friday and looks really good. This has added another ten parking spaces to the area. It is my understanding that parking meters will be installed here shortly. We have also discussed striping off parking spaces in the 200 Block area even though this area was designed for a KAT bus stop and a commercial loading zone. KAT is still in the process of determining their new routes and parking is allowed after 6:00pm in commercial loading areas so we felt like it would be appropriate to go ahead and stripe off these spots for parking which will potentially add another 8 or so parking spaces to the area.

State Street from Vine Avenue to Summit Hill Drive has been removed and is being graded, with grass and some additional trees to come and we think this will be a very nice green area. Future plans for this small park are still very much in the preplanning stage and no additional funding is currently in place for any improvements. We will make sure we engage the community when we begin that process.

Below is a picture of the base that held the Treble Clef statue. My understanding is that the City Art Committee has looked over this and is in the process of requesting a RFP in the future to replace this statue.

We completed the small section of sidewalk along Summit Hill Drive by First Friday as well. Below is a picture of that construction.

We moved our efforts last week over to the western sidewalk in front of the restaurants which has been challenging. Ollantays Havana Nights has closed temporarily for renovations so that has made our efforts here a little easier as far as providing access. Still, we are working in tight quarters here. We hope to have the structural concrete all poured for this section of sidewalk by next week. Nama remains open and we thank them for their patience.

You may recognize the underground areas in the next two pictures from some very early pictures I provided of the possible 1919 storefronts.

Also next week we will begin the next section of sidewalk generally in the Unarmed Merchants area and we hope to have this section finished by First Friday in June. At that point we will begin the last section of sidewalk in front of Dewhirst Properties around the first of June and hopefully complete that by mid June.

We also plan this week and next, to begin adding the colored concrete to the eastern sidewalk so in a couple of weeks, hopefully, the eastern sidewalk will be completely finished.

On Monday, May 17, 2010, we are currently planning to restore Vine Avenue from Gay Street westbound back to its original one way designation. With the opening of the 200 Block of S. Gay Street to traffic, we no longer have the need to make this stretch two way. We will also, once again, allow for parking on Vine Avenue so we will restore the 16 parking spaces that we have previously bagged for 'No Parking". With the additional spaces created on the O.P. Jenkins area lot and the additional spaces created on the 200 Block, and with these spaces being reopened, we should finally get back to having the much needed additional parking for the area.

We can always revisit the idea of making Vine Avenue two way in the future if the need arises.

Thanks to all of those who attended the Streetscapes meeting on Monday night. We value your input into our process.

Topics discussed included the closures on Jackson Avenue in June to complete some KUB electrical work. This will force us to have a complete closure on Jackson for some period of time as there are several unknown situations we will encounter here. We have pledged, as we always do, to make this closure as brief as possible but it could last at least a week of two. This will not effect pedestrian traffic along Jackson Avenue.

Also discussed was garbage collection on the block in the future, with the discussion centering on a central collection point, possibly in the rear of the buildings, and the creation of a 100 Block Association to give us consensus on how we proceed.

The Grand Opening celebration was discussed briefly and Mickey Mallonee, Director of Special Events for the City, asked that anyone wanting to help, or having ideas, should contact her via email at MMallonee@cityofknoxville.org to discuss further. We have very tentatively discussed having this in mid September. We have placed several special events electrical boxes in the block which will enable us to easily have special events here in the future.

We will be attending demonstrations this week of the various parking kiosks we are considering for metered parking on the 100 Block. We plan to have two kiosks, each one located at the center of the block on each side of the street instead of parking meters. This new technology has never been used on public streets in the City of Knoxville. These kiosks will allow folks to pay by debit or credit cards if they desire. We will be evaluating some units that also have solar capabilities. The technology is there for folks to be able to add time to their meter via smart phone or computer as well.

We plan to use this same system when we convert the Jackson Avenue Parking lot to a paid lot in the fall. The plan is to allow the Contractor to finish his work and remove staging materials before refurbishing the lot. As I understand it, the plan is to allow for possibly the first two hours of parking to be free here. We are also planning to add a security camera which will be monitored by PBA who has the contract to manage the lot for us.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - May 6, 2010

2010-05-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

Thankfully we did not receive the massive amounts of rain this weekend others experienced so we had minimal problems with our 100 Block Construction efforts.

This week has been devoted primarily to repaving the O.P. Jenkins area parking lot. We hope to have this parking lot striped for parking and reopened by First Friday tomorrow night.

We are also working on the small section of sidewalk along Summit Hill and hope to have that reopened by tomorrow as well. Unfortunately, KUB chose to block the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street at the same time which has created some pedestrian confusion. We have coordinated our efforts pretty well so far but somehow this timing did not get communicated.

The widened area of sidewalk in front of the Commerce building was also completed this week. Sometime in the next month we will probably go ahead and finish this with the colored concrete topcoat.

We moved over to the sidewalk in front of the restaurants this week. The first day we started work a little earlier than usual which generated several complaints. We apologize for the early hours but we had promised to help the restaurants as best we could and in order for them to have a lunch opening, we had to start earlier. The noise component of our work ended this morning and the next two sections will not have the same business pressures so we should work a normal schedule. Our normal contract hours are 7 to 7 .

The picture below is of the concrete saw cutting through the beams at Ollantays Havana Nights restaurant.

Our neighbors to the north have also been impacted by our construction especially Regas Restaurant. We have placed some additional signage around to help folks find their way there and we have plans to have some Streetscape work go on there in the near future.

Just another note on some of the comments on my last post. We have plans to repair existing sidewalk in the O.P. Jenkins area and to replace missing sections which were removed by utility construction.

Vine Avenue is still a subject of some discussion. As it stands currently, upon project completion, and maybe even sooner, Vine Avenue will revert back to its one way status and the parking along that section of Vine will be restored. I am getting with Engineering to understand more about this but my understanding is that for Vine Avenue to remain two way, then the parking will have to be eliminated.

Please make plans to attend our Streetscapes update meeting scheduled for Monday May 10, at 5:30pm at the Emporium.

We will be discussing the work completed to date and our future schedule and timing.

Additional topics we plan to add for discussion include garbage pickup on the 100 Block, plans for a Grand Opening Celebration, and ideas for the newly created green space along the 200 Block.

Of course First Friday is tomorrow night and I hope to see you there.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - April 29, 2010

2010-04-29T06:01:00.001-07:00

The 200 Block of S. Gay Street is now open after being closed for nearly a year. We had hoped to open it last Monday but all of the rain created issues with the striping required before reopening the roadway to traffic. We also had folks at the City cut back some of the tree branches around the streetlights while also adding some finishing touches to the street furnishings.

The eastern sidewalk at Vine Avenue was also completed with the colored concrete this past week and the crossing ramps are under construction.

We hope to finish up the last remaining section of the eastern sidewalk in the next two weeks so all of that sidewalk will be open for First Friday on May 7. The picture below is of the massive concrete slab poured to hold the foundation wall for the new sidewalk.

Work is also continuing on the Cradle of Country Music Park site with the short section of State Street being removed and converted to grass and trees. A new sidewalk will be constructed with curb and gutter along Summit Hill Drive next week (see picture below) across the now removed section of State Street. We will have a lane closure on Summit Hill from the entrance to the O.P. Jenkins parking area to just past Cradle of Country Music Park beginning Monday morning for around a week. Much of this work will be done during two evenings.

Parking meters will be bagged for 'no parking' on the O.P. Jenkins parking lot area beginning Monday so the Contractor can begin repaving this parking area on Tuesday. We plan to have it reopened on Thursday. This parking area will be in asphalt so the work should go quickly.

Work is continuing at the intersection of Vine Avenue in anticipation of finishing the first section of roadway on the 100 Block.

The old sidewalk along Cradle of Country Music Park has been removed and a new sidewalk has been built to better align with the new sidewalk on the 200 Block.

The picture below is of the 100 Block construction taken from Vine Avenue looking north. When I looked at this picture I thought about what a chaotic scene it must be for folks on the Block everyday. The good news is we have made significant progress and I know we have folks working who really know what they are doing.

Folks on the Block could help us out by reporting anyone they see marring our newly poured concrete surfaces. We have had many instances lately of someone taking a sharp object and slicing into the new concrete. When this happens, we have no choice but to take out that section and repour new concrete which further delays the project.

Work is going well enough now that we plan to move over onto the western sidewalk in front of the restaurants by the middle of next week. Work here will probably take around three weeks to complete. As we finish this work, we will also finish that section of roadway and begin the final colored concrete sections. This next section of work will end just past the Wells Fargo office at the door leading up to apartments.

I am tentatively planning a probable final meeting to update folks on our Streetscapes project at 5:30 pm on Monday May 10, 2010 at the Emporium. I will post more on that later.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - April 22, 2010

2010-04-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

As many of you have noticed, we now have street lights and other street furnishings on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street. If all goes as we hope the rest of this week, we are planning to completely reopen the 200 Block and also Vine Avenue to traffic on Monday, April 26.

Once the 200 Block is reopened, we will close the short section of State Street for removal and conversion into the Treble Clef Park. The existing sidewalk will be rebuilt to tie in with our new construction. We have already removed the old sidewalk (see picture below) in anticipation of that phase of construction.

The picture below is of the completed western sidewalk on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street.

Of course work is proceeding on the 100 Block as well. Last week we completed the widened sidewalk in front of the Emporium. I was surprised at how much additional sidewalk is now available for that area.

The widened sidewalk is being created further south to catch up to the portions of sidewalk being built over the underground areas. We are planning to finish up the last section of sidewalk in about two weeks.

We are also continuing to reconstruct the roadway from Vine Avenue going north as we complete the sidewalks on both sides of the 100 Block. Right now we have the roadway completely finished almost up to Olantays Havana Nights restaurant.

Please be aware that upon the reopening of the 200 Block of Gay Street roadway, we will begin work on the parking area in front of O.P. Jenkins. Our plan now is to close off that parking area completely on May 4 for resurfacing and striping, and to have it reopened no later than May 7. This will obviously be an inconvenience for those who park there as well as the businesses but we really have no choice and we will work hard to get this completed as quickly as possible. I think everyone will be pleased with the finished look. The new surface will be asphalt so this should happen quickly.

The result of all of this work will be that by First Friday on May 7, 2010, almost all of the work for the roadway and sidewalks, including the expanded parking areas, will be completed from Summit Hill through Vine Avenue extending into the 100 Block. The construction fences will be moved back to that area as well and the eastern sidewalk will be opened.

Around mid May we will move back over onto the western sidewalk in front of the restaurants to begin finishing those last sections. Of course we still must finish these sidewalks with the colored concrete.

Last, there was a small bit of excitement in the 100 Block Sunday afternoon as someone apparently found it amusing to catch one of the Contractors Porta-Pottys on fire. Thanks to Ollantay Corujo for the brief clip below, and to Stanton Webster for letting me know so I could inform the Contractor.

I am planning to have one last Streetscapes meeting around the middle of May and will let everyone know when I have that scheduled. If anyone has any concerns or questions for that meeting, please let me know in advance and I will make sure we have folk there to address those issues.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - April 15, 2010

2010-04-15T06:51:00.000-07:00

Work crews are making significant progress now that we have better weather. We have work proceeding in all areas of the work zone this week, including some additional sidewalk work in front of the Emporium.

With the new sidewalk poured in front of the facade, we have now moved over into the next and last section of sidewalk on the eastern sidewalk of the 100 Block of S. Gay Street.

Work crews this week have removed the old sidewalk and beams and have begun framing up for the new construction. As has often happened on this project, we have encountered some unexpected utility issues but we don't believe these will cause a delay at this time. We were also unable to take the sidewalks out as a whole as we had been able to do previously because the sidewalk and beams were apparently all poured as one some time ago. This caused the Contractor to have to jackhammer almost all of this sidewalk and manually remove it, which was a very dusty, noisy, and disruptive process.

When this section of sidewalk is complete in about two or three weeks, we now plan to begin on the western sidewalk in front of the restaurants at their request. My understanding is that they both have some remodeling planned to coincide with our construction. If all goes as we hope, we will begin this work in mid May.

The Vine Avenue intersection has worked out quite well and we hope to have the intersection in addition to the 200 Block roadway completely reopened by April 26.

The picture below is of some of the recently poured stained concrete in the intersection. We have also poured additional roadway in this area as well, while we are waiting on this section to cure.

In the week of April 26, we also plan to begin resurfacing and finishing the O.P. Jenkins parking lot which will provide some additional parking for the block upon completion. Of course the old section of State Street will be removed and incorporated into Treble Clef Park at that time as well.

Street lights and street furniture including benches and planters are being delivered and will be installed this week and next. The street lights are in the process of being installed this week and I think they are really looking good with the new sidewalk.

Around the first of June, we plan to finish up some electrical work at the intersection of Jackson Avenue which may necessitate some road closures.

I will post more about that when we have a better schedule.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - April 8, 2010

2010-04-08T07:06:00.001-07:00

Work is really progressing quickly now with better weather. Vine Avenue was closed this past Monday and so far we have not had many issues with it. We are making very good progress here. The waterline in the middle of the road has now been finished (the existing waterline here basically had to be abandoned and cut off since the new waterline was installed in the 200 Block of S. Gay Street). The pictures below reflect some of that work. By yesterday afternoon the Contractor had ordered concrete for a portion of Vine Avenue.

The sidewalks on the 200 Block are now basically completed and we think they look really good. There will still be a final dressing up but folks can now get an idea of what all of the sidewalks in the Streetscapes project will look like. The plan is to begin installing street lights and street furniture next week in anticipation of the reopening of the 200 Block and Vine Avenue in a few weeks. When this block is reopened, the Contractor plans to completely repave the OP Jenkins parking lot as well and this work will include the additional parking spaces. This work should go quickly so by sometime after the first of May we are hoping to have most of the work done from Summit Hill to Vine Avenue.

We are making a lot of gains on the 100 Block at the same time and have now poured the next section of sidewalk in front of the facade between the Emporium and the Sterchi Building. The next few pictures reflect this work. The last phase of work will probably start this week with the removal of the remaining older sidewalk on the eastern side of the 100 Block. This last stretch will provide the last area of some uncertainty as the support system will consist of some grade work, some retaining wall work, and some column work. If all goes as planned here, we hope to be able to complete this section by the end of May.

Below is a picture of the rebar in place in anticipation of concrete. With this much steel in place, this sidewalk should last another 100 years!

Below is a picture of the next section of sidewalk scheduled for completion.

When we finish the work on the eastern sidewalk, we will then turn efforts back over to the western sidewalk probably starting at the section nearer Vine Avenue and working our way north. The restaurant's there are all planning some remodeling and this works with their schedules. We can also begin finishing the road behind us as we proceed.

If this works as we hope we will be finishing up at Dewhirst Properties offices in June and will begin performing finish work in anticipation of our completion date of August 15, 2010.

KUB still has some electrical work to do at the Gay Street intersection with Jackson Avenue which may require some lane closures on Jackson and we are working with them to insure that is completed well before our completion date.

Thanks to all of you for your attendance at First Friday this month and for your continued understanding. It was dusty and windy down there yesterday and we are trying to put down water to hold the dust as best we can and Southern Constructors continues to have employees washing windows.

One last note of thanks to Southern Constructors and their subcontractors, particularly Blount Excavating and Massey Electric, on behalf of many of the businesses and residents of the 100 Block. Their helpfulness and courtesy to everyone there has been noticed and is greatly appreciated.

We are also grateful to Knoxville City Council for their support in seeing this project completed on time with some certainty and also for funding the management of the Jackson Avenue parking lot.

Thanks for your interest

Construction Update - March 31, 2010

2010-03-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

Plans are to finish the 200 Block of S. Gay Street by May 0f 2010, including street furniture and street lights. The series of pictures below reflects the work going on there in the next few days. The 2 inch colored concrete is being poured and there will be other colors of concrete creating bands as we go. Thanks to Ollantay Corujo for providing me with some of these pictures.

We have also made a lot of progress on the sidewalk in front of the facade on the eastern side of S. Gay Street. The plan here is to begin pouring the concrete for the sidewalk next Monday. Probably sometime in the next two weeks work will begin on the final section of sidewalk on the eastern side of the street.

On Monday April 5, 2010 we will close Vine Avenue within the right of way of S. Gay Street for three to four weeks. This is the final bit of work needed to upgrade the waterlines along with some other utility work. When this is finished, around the first of May, we hope to completely reopen the 200 Block to traffic along with Vine Avenue. The only work remaining will be the planting of trees which we will complete in the fall.

During this closure folks parking in the Sterchi Parking lot will have to enter and exit by way of Walnut Street off of Summit Hill.

Delivery trucks will use State street and swing wide through the O.P. Jenkins parking area.

The picture below is of the crews currently working on the water line through O.P Jenkins parking lot in anticipation of this closure. Please let your neighbors know about this important bit of work.

With better weather we are gearing up for the final push to complete the project by August 2010. The Contractor plans to add an additional crew and will work 10 hour days including eight hours on Saturday. We are all committed to having the vast majority of the work completed by August as we have planned.

I am looking forward to seeing a large crowd for First Friday on April 2 and also folks downtown for the upcoming Dogwood Arts Festival.

Please patronize our businesses on the 100 block while you are there including Eleven, Nama, Ollantays Havana Nights, URBhana, and Unarmed Merchants.

As always, thanks for your patience and interest.

Construction Update - March 25, 2010

2010-03-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

Work this week has consisted of pouring concrete for the reinforced columns near the facade on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street and replacing the beams. The steel has been delivered so the framework for the new sidewalk is also in progress. We hope to begin pouring back that sidewalk in the next ten days or so.

In the meantime, next week, we plan to begin pouring the colored two inch concrete topcoat which will complete the sidewalk in the 200 Block. This work should be finished by First Friday on April 2, 2010.

Then, on Monday April 5, we will begin one of the most difficult sections of work left and that is the work at the Vine Street intersection. On that day we will have to completely close that intersection for three weeks to one month. This will mean that folks using the Sterchi Building parking lot will have to enter and exit from Walnut Street off of Summit Hill Drive.

The small section of State Street will remain open for deliveries and we have expanded the radius so folks can loop around through the parking area in front of O.P. Jenkins. The two pictures below reflect the work being completed to allow this movement. The radius is large enough for the larger delivery trucks to make that turn.

I will get out a press release on this next week as well.

By the end of April, we plan to completely reopen the 200 Block to traffic and Vine Avenue will also be open for traffic at that time.

The area we are using for the turn radius as well the area that is now a part of the short section of State Street will become additional parking for the block and we will be working on getting that formed and striped while we are working at that intersection.

With better weather we think we can really make noticeable progress from here until August.

The schedule from here on out will likely consist of finishing the sidewalk in front of facade, then finishing the last section of sidewalk on the eastern side of the street.

Sometime around mid May/June, then, we will move back over to the western sidewalk. This work will likely be broken into three work zones because of all of the access issues but each section hopefully will only take ten days to two weeks.

While all of this is going on, we plan to finish up portions of the roadway itself on the 100 Block.

Timing will be tight but we believe we can have it substantially completed by August, such that all sections of the roadway are reopened. There will probably still be some temporary finish work after this time which may require some additional small sections of the roadway or sidewalk to be closed but these closures should be for a very brief time.

Thanks again for all of your patience and understanding.

Construction Update - March 18, 2010

2010-03-18T07:02:00.000-07:00

With better weather on the horizon, we hope to make real progress from here on out. The picture below is of the completed sidewalk (except for the two inch colored concrete topcoat) on the eastern sidewalk at S. Gay Street and Vine Avenue.

The picture below is of the completed sidewalk in front of the Emporium on S. Gay Street. The plywood sections will be the location of the glass block panels upon completion.

With this construction we are finally able to reopen the sidewalk along Jackson Avenue so folks can avoid oncoming traffic.

We began the next phase of sidewalk work this week from the end of the Emporium construction on up to the entrance to the Sterchi Building. By today the old beams have been removed and the columns ready for new construction (see next four pictures).

In order to protect the existing facade, the Contractor provided shoring under the sidewalk. The picture below was taken from the aluminum walkway adjoining the facade.

As we experienced on the western sidewalk, we also located old coal shoots (see the next two pictures). Thanks again to Mike Berry for providing me some of these pictures.
This old coal shoot has now been removed.

The folks at KUB asked me to inform everyone that they plan to work on a waterline in the parking lot near O.P Jenkins on Friday and should be finished by the end of the day. Some parking meters will likely be bagged to accomplish this work.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - March 12, 2010

2010-03-12T05:30:00.000-08:00

I am happy to report that we have finally had the concrete poured for the eastern sidewalk in front of the Emporium. Thanks to Mike Berry for sending me these pictures yesterday.

I also received some good news this past week on another front. Many of you have been asking the City to assist in getting Comcast to extend their services onto the western side of the block. I have set up Comcast with KUB on a couple of occasions without success. City Councilman Nick Pavlis happened to be on the 100 Block last week and the subject of utilities came up. As most of you know, Nick is very knowledgeable about this issue and offered to intercede. I am happy to report that he called me this week to tell me that Comcast plans to provide service to the folks on the western side of the block in the very near future. Thanks Nick for all of your help.

Construction Update - March 11, 2010

2010-03-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

As shown in the picture below, we have finally been able to pour concrete for the section of the eastern sidewalk along S. Gay Street near Vine Avenue. By having this section reopened, access should be greatly improved on the block.

I realize that Sunday and Monday brought less than ideal conditions for travel on the block and I apologize on behalf of the City and the Contractor for all of the inconveniences. That being said, for us to have any hope of completing this project in a timely manner, we must have the ability to work occasional weekend hours and in more than one area at a time and we hope folks will recognize that the travelways will probably be changing often. Granted the crushed rock pathways are not the same as a concrete sidewalk but we believe they are still functional for the short term.

As we begin the work needed in mid-block, traversing the area will obviously become more challenging. If you have specific needs throughout this process, please don't hesitate to let me or the Contractor know about them and we will make every effort we can to accommodate you as we have in the past.

We are now working in front of FMB Advertising on the western sidewalk near Vine Avenue (see picture below) and this work is going quickly. We hope to pour back this section of sidewalk tomorrow.

The western sidewalk is currently open from Jackson Avenue all the way down to FMB.

Several pathways have been created to reach the Emporium and adjacent businesses. The eastern sidewalk can also be accessed from here (see next two pictures).

We plan to pour concrete in front of the Emporium tomorrow and also pour concrete on the western side near here for a bump out and an extended curb. This will allow us to have the next section of roadway poured here next week.

Following this concrete work, on Monday, we plan to begin the next section of sidewalk from Slamdot, past the WNOX facade, to near the entrance of the Sterchi Building. The entrance to the Sterchi will not be affected by this. The aluminum sidewalk will not be able to be accessed from S. Gay Street from noon on Monday for several hours while we remove the sidewalk for several reasons not the least of which is safety. We are hopeful this work can proceed at a good pace and then we can completely finish the eastern sidewalk in the next phase of work.

While we are working on the eastern side, we will also begin some work on the western sidewalk underground to begin construction of the cross beam needed to work with the completed shafts created by the micropiles which, as you all know, were drilled earlier this week.

There are now two remaining sections of the western sidewalk to complete after we finish the eastern sidewalk.

Obviously it will be a challenge to finish all of the work by August given the many obstacles but we are all working toward that goal.

Please hang in there with us for a few more months so we can complete this much needed project.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - March 4, 2010

2010-03-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

Work has progressed at a slower pace than we had hoped on the sidewalk in front of the Emporium for a variety of reasons. Obviously weather has factored into this but also we have had design changes once again due to problems with the original elevations among other issues.

The picture below is the work required now to tie in this section to Jackson Avenue.

The steel is continuing to be placed and hopefully we will be able to begin pouring this sidewalk section by Thursday of next week. Of course we have First Friday on March 5, 2010 so the entrance will be as shown in the picture below. The mid-block crossing will be in place for folks to visit the clothing store Eleven as well. The folks at Eleven really need our support right now so please find some time to visit them.

We hope to begin pouring back the sidewalk on the eastern sidewalk near Vine Avenue by March 4, 2010. This work has also been slowed by several factors including some last minute utility work near Vine Avenue. We are continuing to discuss the eventual closure of this intersection but are very mindful of all the issues involved not the least of which is traffic flow.

Additional work on the waterline in this area is planned to continue tomorrow as well.

On Sunday of this week, March 7, 2010, please be prepared for the work needed to drill the micropiles to form the new columns near Unarmed Merchants. This will require a small drilling rig and they plan to begin setting up around 7:00 to 7:30 am Sunday morning and begin drilling around 9:00am or so. This work will require some noise and dust unfortunately. The subcontractor plans to work 12 hours at a time and be finished by Tuesday. This schedule works well for the folks at Unarmed Merchants since they close on those days. The drilling will be required directly in front of their entrance on the sidewalk. We apologize in advance because I know this will likely be disruptive.

Once again, I hope to see you at First Friday on March 5, 2010. Looks like right now the weather should be decent so I hope you can come out and help support our Downtown and the Art Community.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - February 25, 2010

2010-02-25T06:17:00.001-08:00

The sidewalk work planned on the eastern side of S. Gay Street near Vine Avenue has slowed a bit as KUB crews and subcontractors perform some additional utility work in this area, primarily working on a waterline that has caused a narrowing of Vine Avenue at the intersection. The following two pictures reflect the current conditions here.

We continue to make progress on the sidewalk in front of the Emporium and the plan is to pour concrete here by early next week. Our hope is to have most of this work done by First Friday on March 5.

Future work will consist of reconstruction of the Vine Avenue intersection currently scheduled for the middle of March and a continuation of work on the eastern and western sidewalks from Vine Avenue northward.

Also in mid march will be the beginning of the construction needed to reform the two columns near Unarmed Merchants.

Although not totally unexpected, we are disappointed at the news that the popular eatery, Nama, will be moving into the 500 Block of S. Gay Street.

The construction certainly did not help their business but I think everyone recognized their need for more space. Our completed construction still would not have afforded them much more room to expand. They have been fantastic to work with and we wish them well and look forward to assisting in whatever new concept the owners have for this space.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - February 18, 2010

2010-02-17T10:30:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, it has been an interesting week on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street with two unfortunate incidents occurring. The first, and most serious, was a gas leak into the Commerce Building caused by construction. One of the subcontractors was excavating near the gas line going into the Commerce Building and accidentally pulled on the pipeline causing it to leak inside the building. Thankfully, nobody was injured and little damage done although folks had to be evacuated from the building for a short time. Emergency responders from KPD, KFD , and KUB were all on scene and quickly remedied the situation. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused to anyone over this matter.

The second incident occurred when an individual decided to park his vehicle, temporarily, in our work zone near working equipment. This vehicle, as I understand it, was severely damaged when a piece of heavy equipment inadvertently made contact with it. We have tried our best throughout this project to accommodate folks but always with the caveat that they get permission from the job superintendent before entering the work zone so we could avoid this type of outcome. Thankfully no injuries occurred from this accident either but the vehicle was towed away.

We began the at-grade sidewalk work this week on the eastern sidewalk near Vine Avenue and plan to begin reforming the new sidewalk and having concrete poured here by the end of the week. This work has taken less than a week. The plan, as I understand it, is to begin work on a similar section on the western sidewalk next week. See picture below of this work.

We are continuing to work in the 100 Block of S. Gay Street despite the harsh weather. Below is a picture I took Wednesday morning. It was estimated that around 40 men were on site at that time with a temperature in the 20's.

We have continued to work in front of the Emporium and have made good progress here. The next two pictures show the status of work as of Wednesday.

In order to get to this stage of work, earlier in the week the Contractor had to provide heating for both the concrete and more importantly, the epoxy used around the columns. The temperatures had to be in the 38-40 degree range for 24 hours per the specifications which forced us to use heaters. The picture below is of the temporary roof placed over the underground to help contain the heat for this period.

Thanks to to those who attended our Streetscapes meeting last night. Although attendance was very light, we have always felt like it is important to give folks a chance to ask questions and get a progress report periodically.

Folks are always wanting to know when the project is going to be completed and the Contract end date is still August of 2010. The optimist in me believes we can meet that date for substantial completion and so far the Contract has not changed but please realize that many factors enter in to that equation. My understanding at this point, however, is that at least some elements of the Contract are in dispute. I am hopeful these issues can be resolved amicably in the near future.

Given the weather conditions since we started this project, both record rain and now snow and cold, coupled with all of the project unknowns, I believe we have made very good progress.

I credit our Contractor, Southern Constructors, with our success to date along with the help and coordination of many others.

One of my favorite radio stations, WDVX, is having an event at the Emporium Saturday night called Hillbilly Ball, which was postponed from a previous date.

I first thought it was in my honor since I am originally from Eastern Kentucky, but, alas, it is a fundraiser for them so please visit if you can and help out this wonderful community resource.

I believe the event begins at 6:00pm.

http://www.wdvx.com/

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - February 11, 2010

2010-02-10T12:03:00.000-08:00

Progress continues on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street as evidenced by the next several pictures. The picture below is of the first pour of concrete to form what will be the new roadway in front of the VMC building.

We have been able to continue to work, despite the weather, on the eastern sidewalk in front of the Emporium. The glass block panels were taken out along with the concrete for the sidewalk in one big slab. The concrete was then jackhammered away from the panels so we can reuse them in the new sidewalk. The next two pictures show the exposed underground area adjacent to the Emporium.

The picture below is of the Construction crew removing the concrete from the glass panels.

The picture below is of one of the glass panels before the concrete removed. The Contractor estimated that each of the panels weighs up to one ton.

The above picture is of the removed glass panels along with other sections of sidewalk. Amazingly these sections are coming loose as a whole. Also work has begun on saw cutting the columns for retrofitting. In this picture is one of the beams that has been removed.

The picture below is of the equipment used to help remove sections of sidewalk as well as the beams.

As most of you know, the street lights have been removed (see next two pictures). My understanding is that KUB hopes to install temporary street lighting tomorrow. I know it is very dark out there at night. KPD had been notified and is taking steps to insure security.

Since all of the street lights on each section of roadway were wired together, there was no way to simply remove one pole at a time unfortunately.

Admittedly, we dropped the ball on timing on this and I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Some utility work remains and gas meters are due to have some work, I believe, Thursday night. KUB is proceeding as per their normal notification schedule. Also next Tuesday, my understanding is that the water service will be off starting at 2:00 am to possibly 5:00 am for a large portion of the 100 Block. KUB should also be in the process of notifying those folks affected here as well.

I have had some questions posed to me about parking and non-functioning meters. I called traffic engineering as well as 311 for answers and found out the following information.

If you find a parking meter that is not working, please call 311 and report this to them. They will give you a service call number. If you get a ticket because of a parking meter malfunction and have reported it, simply include the service call number and a brief explanation along with the returned ticket. KPD will check with engineering and if it is determined that the meter has malfunctioned, then the ticket is waived. If it is determined that the meter is functioning, you will receive a second notice to pay.

We appreciate any help in reporting meters that are out of order whether a ticket is received or not. I had heard that many meters on the Gay Street Viaduct did not work, but our traffic folks tell me they only found one meter not working last week. If some part of what I have just reported is not exactly correct, I will post the correction as soon as I find out as this has been an issue for some time and has not been made as clear as perhaps it should be.

Please use extreme caution for the next few weeks when traveling west along the Jackson Avenue sidewalk (see picture below). The very end of the sidewalk is in our construction zone so folks must cross over onto the north crossing of S. Gay Street on the Viaduct, which I know is very inconvenient, before crossing back over onto the western sidewalk to head downtown. I know my friends at the Fire Street Lofts will be inconvenienced by this and we will try to get this repair done as quickly as possible.

Please don't forget our Streetscapes meeting on February 16, 2010 at 5:00pm at the Emporium.

This meeting will generally just be an update on construction and a way for folks to voice any other concerns. I will probably not have a formal agenda for this meeting but topics likely to come up include the closure of Vine Avenue and its impact on valet parking and deliveries and also future timing for various sections of the work. If you have any questions or concerns, please share them with me and I will make sure we have folks available for discussion at the meeting. I hope to see you there.

Also this weekend is the Mardi Growl parade on Saturday, February 13, beginning at 11:am and ending on Market Square. Proceeds from the event benefit Young-Williams Animal Center.

It is really an amazing sight to see all of the dog breeds represented there.

Please stay warm and dry and as always, thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - February 8, 2010

2010-02-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

Please remember that work has started on the eastern sidewalk of the 100 Block of S. Gay Street in front of the Emporium. The western sidewalk is open so if you are headed to Jackson Avenue from Summit Hill, please cross over. If you need to get to the Emporium, the eastern sidewalk is available until 5pm tonight. After that the Contractor will be working to construct a bridge into the front door by 8am in the morning.

Also, I was just on the block and the street lights are being taken down. Temporary lighting will be put back in place but it is looking like that will not occur until tomorrow or even Wednesday. I have notified KPD to keep a watch until such time as lighting is restored.

Thanks for your understanding.

Construction Update - February 4, 2010

2010-02-03T11:15:00.000-08:00

Despite the weather, we have continued to make progress, particularly on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street. Even in the worst weather we have been completing some of the utility work underground on both sides of the street. We are still planning to begin work on the eastern sidewalk on both the Vine Avenue end of the street as well as the sidewalk in front of the Emporium beginning on Monday. With the weather being as it is and with First Friday coming up this weekend, we thought it best to just wait until Monday to begin this construction. At the Emporium, work will begin first thing Monday morning up to the entrance and then the Contractor plans to work after 5:00pm and into the night to get past the doorway such that a bridge will be in place by Tuesday morning into the Emporium. It will take some work to remove the existing glass panels in this area as we intend to reuse them. The glass panels, when replaced, will be flush with the new sidewalk which will be a great improvement. I believe they are also spaced differently with additional glass panels planned as well. The very first section of new roadway is scheduled to be poured tomorrow in front of the former VMC building and as construction progresses, the plan is to construct the roadway concurrently on the western side of the road.The next three pictures reflect the current conditions.

Construction of the 200 Block is almost finished and the sidewalks should be reopened by today. All that is left here is the 2 inch topcoat and colored bands to be poured when the temperatures allow. The roadway itself cannot be reopened back for traffic until we complete the Vine Avenue intersection construction. This work involves KUB water service as well as AT&T and will require much timing. Additionally it is an area where we have several crosswalks which will use the colored concrete so that also takes extra time.

We plan to begin this work sometime in March and will likely take up to three weeks to complete.

The Contractor has used crew time wisely and has been able to keep all of his crews working consistently. The picture above is of the new curbing at the entrance to Fire Street

Additional work that will likely occur soon involves the old sidewalk along Treble Clef park ( see picture above).

Issues in discussion currently are future sidewalk use agreements both on new sidewalk and on the older sidewalks below, and also the condition and issues with the facade in front of the old WNOX building.

Please don't forget First Friday this week and the opening of the “Headlights and Streetlights” art exhibit featuring Mike C. Berry and Bobbie Crews at the Emporium. Many other exciting events are also planned on the 100 Block as well as the rest of downtown so please come downtown this Friday and help us celebrate the great artists we have in our community while patronizing the many shops and restaurants. I hope to see you there.

I am planning a press release soon on the next Streetscapes meeting to be held at the Emporium on February 16, 2010 at 5:00pm . Please make plans to attend.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - January 28, 2010

2010-01-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

The construction of the 100 Block and the 200 Block of S. Gay Street is really starting to move on now and we are establishing, I believe, a really good rhythm with the work crews. This week we are working on the curb and entrance to Fire Street and are ready to pour the crosswalk in the 200 Block along Summit Hill. We are also ready to begin pouring the sidewalk in the next section of the sidewalk on the western side of S. Gay Street.

We finished pouring concrete for the bulb out sections at the beginning of the western sidewalk ( see pictures below) as well.

We plan to open up both sections of the sidewalk in the 200 Block on Friday and remove the fencing there so this will really open this area back up. We just finished the knee wall adjacent to the parking lot on the western side so the crosswalk along Summit Hill is all that remains before we begin work in the Vine Avenue intersection. This work will probably not take place until sometime in March as it will be involved and will require a complete closure of that intersection for around two weeks. We will have to likely flag for delivery trucks in the 200 Block and will allow valet and other parking on the 200 Block as best we can.

We will also have to bag, once again, the parking meters on State Street for no parking as we plan to remove that section of road and reconstruct that short piece of sidewalk along Treble Clef Park from Summit Hill to the tie in with the new sidewalk.

The first pieces of colored concrete have been poured in the 200 Block ( see next two pictures) and the remaining crosswalk at Summit Hill will be poured to the same color. I am told this is the predominant color for the rest of the project although there are some various shades for the banding yet to come.

We now have several crews working at once and the plan is to begin sidewalk construction on the eastern sidewalk of the 100 Block, beginning at Vine Avenue and working north until the supporting columns underneath begin. This work should go quickly as there is little supporting structure required. The estimate is for the construction on this piece to take one week. Then the plan is to move over onto the western sidewalk in front of FMB for another week.

At that point we will be ready to work in front of the Emporium, probably beginning on the evening of February 8 and working on the next two sections for the next three weeks or so ending just before the entrance to Slamdot.

While this work is going on we hope to be completing the micropiles and new column construction in the area of Unarmed Merchants and Dewhirst Properties. The plan is also to begin pouring concrete back for the roadway on the 100 Block on either end such that a complete lane can be finished along the western portion of the roadway in the 100 Block.

Weather permitting, we think we can really get moving along from here on out.

You may have noticed Southern Constructors has hired a gentleman just to keep all of the windows clean so we are thankful for their continued consideration for folks on the block.

Water services and just a small amount of electrical work is about all that remains as far as remaining utility work goes.

Don't forget the Streetscapes meeting scheduled for February 16 at 5:00pm at the Emporium. In addition to the Contractor, Engineers, KPD, KUB, and the CBID, I planning to invite the Fire Marshall office for input into Use Agreements for the under the sidewalk areas and other considerations.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - January 21, 2010

2010-01-20T12:09:00.001-08:00

Thankfully the weather has gotten much better and we were able to get quite a lot done this past week. The 200 Block of S. Gay Street is getting close to completion as evidenced by the next two pictures below. Due to some equipment issues with a subcontractor, we have had to continue the lane closure on Summit Hill. We plan to have this lane reopened on Friday of this week. Shortly thereafter, we will begin the work on the intersection of S. Gay Street and Vine Avenue. We plan to make the valet parking and deliveries available on the newly resurfaced part of the 200 Block of S. Gay Street at that time. Most likely it will take a week or two to finish up that intersection depending primarily on the weather.

Work is continuing on the sidewalks in the 100 Block of S. Gay Street. It has been challenging so far to keep access to all of the buildings while continuing the work. Southern Constructors continues to do a fine job here in trying to accommodate the needs of all of the folks affected by the construction. It is really has been a testament to their abilities in coordinating all of the subcontractors and the subcontractors of the subs as well as their own people.

As reflected in the picture below (thanks to George Richardson for this picture) the Contractor has been able to pull up the old sidewalk as one big slab which has really helped in demolition.

Again, weather permitting we hope to finish this next section in the next week or two such that we can then move over onto the eastern sidewalk in front of the Emporium around February 9 for the rest of February. This will give us time to finish up with utility relocation and the drilling of micropiles needed to create two entirely new columns to support the sidewalk in the Unarmed Merchants area. The picture below reflects just how complicated this utility relocation underground is. Although KUB has completed their work, Massey Electric is now completing the portion of the work from the retaining wall into some of the structures, primarily on Dewhirst Properties. Any outages here should be minor in length of time.

I was privileged to give KPD a tour of the underground areas as well as the areas surrounding the 100 Block last week so they can remain current with all of the access points as well as to discuss issues related to security. These folks have a tough job and I am thankful for the job they do.

I am planning another Streetscapes update meeting for February 16, 2010 at 5:00 pm at the Emporium and will get out a press release soon so please mark your calenders.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - January 13, 2010

2010-01-13T11:47:00.000-08:00

The weather has had an impact on our schedule this week but we have still continued to make progress, primarily completing some concrete work as well as continuing utility work in the underground areas of construction. The 200 Block of S. Gay Street has really come along and we began the lane closure on Summit Hill as previously announced (see press release below picture).

PRESS RELEASE

The right lane on the westbound side of Summit Hill Drive where it intersects with Gay Street will be closed from 9 a.m. Wednesday, January 13, through 6 a.m. Monday, January 18.

The lane closing is necessary for the completion of utility and street resurfacing work being conducted on the 200 block of Gay Street. The work is part of the ongoing Gay Street Streetscapes project.

Southern Constructors Inc. is the lead contractor for the Streetscapes project. It includes the 100 and 200 blocks of Gay Street - from Jackson Avenue to Summit Hill Drive - and involves the replacement of the street and both sidewalks in addition to other improvements.

More information about this effort is available at www.cityofknoxville.org/policy/100block/

In conjunction with 100 Block utility work, KUB will have some planned outages beginning Friday at 8:00 am until 5:00 pm to move utilities under the western sidewalk. My understanding is that folks impacted may have their power off for 2-4 hours at the longest but hopefully much shorter (see KUB Clearance request below for more detail).

Contractor’s Clearance Request Form

Email to: CustomerSupportUSAGroup@kub.org
Standard 48-hour advance notice

Clearance Date and Start Time requested
8:00AM Friday, Jan 15,2010

Contractor’s Name and phone number
Massey Electric 865-573-4200

Street Address of Clearance (or block, intersection, etc.):
111,117 S. Gay St

Purpose of the Clearance :
Relocate electric service conductors and conduit which are in way of new side walk construction.

Customer contact name and number, if applicable:
1.) 111 S.Gay St Mtr # E1H1000085
North Central Village LLC
2.) 117 ½ S.Gay St Mtr # Z1F0800727
Dewhirst Properties LLC
3.) 117 ½ (E) S.Gay St Mtr #Z1F0800729
Ayoub, Pete
4.) 117 S.Gay St Mtr #Z1F0800730
Dewhirst, David W.
5.) 117 S.Gay St Lot 1 Mtr #Z1F0800724
Dewhirst, David W.
6.) 117 S.Gay St Lot 4 Mtr #Z1F0800723
Dewhirst Properties LLC
Work Order number, if available:
CE011280

Special requests or concerns:
North Central Village LLC @ 111 S.Gay St does not appear to be occupied.

KUB Troubleman needed? Yes/No

OHC Network crew will be required to disconnect/re-connect service conductors

With temperatures warming we hope to pour concrete in several places the rest of the week beginning today.

Tomorrow the next section of sidewalk on the west side of S. Gay Street will be removed to begin that part of the construction.

Upon completion of this work, the plans now are to move over onto the eastern sidewalk in front of the Emporium around February 9, 2010 after the February First Friday.

I plan to schedule another Public meeting around the middle of February to discuss progress and future plans.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - January 6, 2010

2010-01-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

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.

Construction Update - December 30, 2009

2009-12-30T10:21:00.001-08:00

As we had hoped, we have now been able to complete most of the 200 Block of S. Gay Street roadway and all of both sidewalks have now been reformed with concrete. The 2 inch pour of concrete is yet to come which will have the coloring and banding. The three pictures below reflect the current status of work here.

Sometime around the week of January 10, 2010, we will have to have a lane closure on Summit Hill for about a week to complete the roadway and sidewalk resurfacing. Of course this will be greatly dependent on the weather and I will post as soon as a date is set. Sometime soon after that bit of work we will move over into the intersection with Vine Avenue to complete that stretch. I will be discussing delivery scheduling with some of you closer to that time.

The first section of sidewalk has been poured in the west side of the 100 Block and we plan to pour the concrete needed for the next section in front of UHRbana tomorrow.

Below is the current bridge to URHbana and also to the UT Art Gallery. The next section of work is due to begin early next week. I plan to contact some of you next week to discuss scheduling. As you can see in the picture below, the door on the left which is the entrance to several apartments, will be affected and is very problematic in that it swings out and is very low. The bridging for this door will be very tricky so close coordination with everyone here will be needed.

Other work being completed includes water service on the western side of the 100 Block. This switchover could cause very temporary water cutoff for some while the switch is made from old service to new service. I am told the outage would take no more than 20 minutes at a time and none of the restaurants would be affected.

We also plan to begin restoring the old sidewalk underground on the east side of the 100 Block next week as the KUB vault work is now completed. The next several pictures reflect the conditions underground there.

The picture above is of the old sidewalk beside the Emporium. Note the glass block panels above.

The picture below is of the older sidewalk looking toward the Sterchi Building.

Below is another picture from the Emporium area. This side of the street is much cleaner and in better structural shape than the west side so we hope work here will progress quickly. We may be able to get to this side of the street in early 2010 depending on everyones schedule.

The columns all line up very nicely here as well (see below) as opposed to the west side where many barely fit on their caissons which created all of the column redesigns.

The picture below was taken near the old WNOX area and show the remnants of an old glass panel in the old sidewalk.

The picture below was of yet another unexpected find in the old sidewalk. Speculation is that this was a vault of the old Western Union business that existed here.

The above picture is under the Jackson Avenue ramp near the entrance to the underground on the east side. There is not an entrance way currently from lower Jackson Avenue to reach this eastern underground sidewalk area as exists on the western side with it's concrete stairway.

I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year and for all of you planning an evening for First Night downtown, don't forget to patronize the shops on the 100 Block as well.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - December 23, 2009

2009-12-23T11:24:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable holiday.

We are very much encouraged by the progress we are making on the 100 and 200 Block of S. Gay Street. As I noted last week most of the utility work is now done and we are now in the roadway and sidewalk construction phase. So far the weather has cooperated enough to allow us to pour a good amount of concrete.

The picture below is the first pour of concrete in front of the VMC building on the west side of S. Gay Street.

We have also started the next section of sidewalk ( see below). We have quickly learned that we will probably be building and rebuilding bridge sections as work progresses depending on the work to be done and the situation with the building occupants.

The 200 Block is really coming along such that we hope to have all of the concrete in place by the end of the year with a possible reopening of the 200 Block to 2 way traffic by the end of January. We will have some work to do at the first of the year which will necessitate a lane closure on Summit Hill for maybe two days to finish up here. The pictures below show the 2oo block formed up and then with concrete poured. All of the sidewalks have now been reformed on both sides of the street and only the roadway is remaining to be surfaced.

The picture below is a good depiction of the narrowed roadway. Here there are two pours of concrete, one for the west which is completed and the east which is just being poured.

Last, below is a pic taken from the Gay Street Viaduct of the project.

Merry Christmas to all of you and thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - December 17, 2009

2009-12-16T12:09:00.000-08:00

The first pour of concrete on the western sidewalk of the 100 Block will occur, hopefully, early next week. This area is the most complex with the tie in to Jackson Avenue ramp as well as ultimately the Gay Street Viaduct so the grade lines are critical. Once we get beyond this, we think everything else should proceed as we thought.

Yesterday we also began work on the next section of sidewalk in front of 1010 UT Gallery and also URHbana. The old sidewalk is being removed and bridges located for entrance. Steel and the column forms are being put in place so concrete can be poured here next week as well.

KUB successfully completed their goal of completely re energizing the 100 Block of S. Gay Street apparently without a hitch. The only electric work remaining will involve installing the street light system and other minor switching. The vault work should be completed this week and last weeks glitch worked out for everyone I am told so we are grateful for that.

You will note the box layout in the picture below in the middle of the rebar and the form for the new sidewalk. This will eventually provide the base of a glass panel. The glass panels will be installed this spring in conjunction with the 2 inch top pour remaining for the sidewalks.

The work on a water line continued last week along Summit Hill and in front of O.P. Jenkins and seemed to go well with a temporary lane closure on Summit Hill needed.

We continue to make progress on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street and plan to pour more concrete later this week and next week. The east sidewalk is ready for concrete as is another large section of roadway. Below is the first section of roadway to be completed.

Finally, thanks to CBID and others for the advertising plan for the 100 Block Merchants. I am sure it will be a big help to them. I believe folks at CBID have been in touch with the Merchants and I know they (CBID) would like to hear any feedback from their efforts.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - December 10, 2009

2009-12-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

We are continuing to make good progress on both the 100 Block and the 200 Block of S. Gay Street albeit with some bumps along the way.

An example of this was our problem with removing the old KUB vaults on the east side of S. Gay Street this week. These vaults have housed transformers for almost 50 years and since there is a small chance of contamination, KUB has hired an environmental contractor specializing in hazard abatement to remove the vaults.

As I have related here before, one of the vaults is in front of the Emporium and actually in the underground sidewalk area on the east side. Indeed, our work there is currently held up in exploratory digging on the columns on the east side while we await the removal of this vault.

Yesterday I walked down for our weekly construction meeting and was immediately stopped on my way by folks at the Emporium concerned with the vault work and its impact on the Black Box Theater on the second level of the Emporium building. The Black Box Theatre folks are hosting an International Convention of world musicians this week including some from Trinidad and they were to begin practicing for their concerts at the Bijou Theater on Friday and Saturday night inside the Black Box Theater.

The noise was horrendous from the machinery removing the vault but even more disturbing to them was the hole that had appeared in their brick wall separating them from the old underground sidewalk (see first pic below).

I then went to the construction meeting with this news and found that folks there were already well aware of this issue. Gordon Bryant and Everett Noe from KUB relayed the situation to me which was the Black Box Theater wall was in fact the outside wall of the vault to be removed.

The Black Box Theatre actually did not have an exterior wall separating them from the old underground sidewalk. This made a lot of sense in hindsight given their issues with stormwater penetration into their space. Our Contractor on the 100 Block had said that he suspected a problem here but we had no idea the problem was in fact not a poorly constructed wall but no wall at all.

The hole that was encountered was a result of the KUB Contractor investigating the condition of what was thought to be the exterior wall to the Black Box Theater by taking out a single brick in the wall to the vault. The Contractor and KUB were both surprised to find themselves actually peering into the Black Box Theater.

After the construction meeting and armed with this new knowledge, KUB folks met with folks at the Emporium and were able to work out a compromise on rehearsal and timing of construction. Then we went to Dewhirst Properties who has management responsibilities for the Emporium Building with the wall issue or rather the lack of a wall. I am happy to say that folks there were most accommodating and agreed to begin constructing an exterior wall today.

The second picture is of one the the wonderful groups rehearsing in The Black Box Theatre at the Emporium (the wall in question is behind the singer) and the next two pictures are of the east side underground sidewalk area taken by the to-be-removed KUB vault.

Thanks to everyone involved, Lisa Zinni and Cheryl Jenkins at the Emporium, Linda Parris-Bailey of the Black Box Theater, Everett Noe and Gordon Bryant at KUB, David Dewhirst, Mark Heinz and AnnMarie Tugwell at Dewhirst Properties for all coming together in a spirit of compromise to resolve this issue quickly.

We are indeed fortunate to have these types of folks on the 100 Block.

Work is also continuing on the 100 Block. We had a slight glitch with some of the design grades but are on track, weather permitting, to begin pouring the concrete for this first section of sidewalk next week. We plan to begin the next section in front of the UT Gallery and URHbana next week as well.

Work is moving ahead on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street. We hope to begin pouring concrete in the first section of roadway this week. The east sidewalk has been removed and forms are being put in place to begin this reconstruction. We are hopeful we can have this work completed by the first of the year. This will also include reconstructing the section through the intersection with Vine Avenue so folks should have a nice entrance way into the 100 Block soon.

Some of the remaining utility work to be done includes the installation of a waterline (see below), near the intersection of Vine Avenue and S. Gay Street.

Of course remember the electric outage planned for tonight and tomorrow as described in my last post.

The Christmas Parade and First Friday were both a success and many thanks to all of the residents and merchants on the 100 Block for all of their Christmas decorations. With the construction, the City of Knoxville is obviously not able to help there as much as we would like but our hats are off to you for making the block look festive.

Folks at the City and CBID are working hard on an advertising plan for the 100 Block merchants and also on some sort of sign to be placed near the existing "We are Open" sign. I will post more in the near future when I have more information.

As always, I hope you are enjoying the Holiday season.

Thanks for your interest.

KUB Outage

2009-12-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

Please pass along this info sent to me from KUB concerning the planned power outage.

The clearance that was scheduled for the 100 Block of Gay St. on Dec 8th/9th has been re-scheduled due to forecast of heavy rain on the 9th and 10th of December. The new time is Thursday night, the 11th starting at midnight extending until Friday morning at 6:00AM. We will NOT have the service to the two restaurants off until after 2:00AM when they close.

Dec 11 @ midnight until 6:00AM. Work @ restaurants will not start until AFTER they close @ 2:00AM.

13 Customers…139 S. Gay, 137 S. Gay , 135 S. Gay (Downstairs), 135 S. Gay (Upstairs), 133-A S. Gay , 133-B S. Gay, 133-C S. Gay, 131 S.Gay, 119 S. Gay, 117 S. Gay SW (A1F0800197) Southern Alliance, 115 ½ SW S. Gay (A1F0800172) Southern Alliance, 115 ½ S. Gay(E1F0500044) URBHANA, and 113 S.Gay (UT Gallery), Nama and Havana Nights Restaurants; David Dewhirst Properties @ 123 S.Gay St and other residents.

KUB crews and Massey Electric will require access to door at 123 S.Gay(Dewhirst) to get to the space under the sidewalk.

Thanks for your help in getting this message out.

Construction Update- December 3, 2009

2009-12-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

Thanks to those who attended our Streetscapes meeting on November 30 at the Emporium.
It is always helpful to us to meet with anyone with an interest in the project and to listen to any concerns.

As a result of that meeting we plan to have a sign constructed basically stating 'We are Open" probably constructed at our City Engineering sign shop using reflective materials to go along with our existing sign. Also, CBID is working on an advertising campaign for the Holiday season similar, I think, to our initial effort upon project start.

KUB folks were in attendance and we discussed the electric outage necessary to energize the newly installed electric service to the remaining folks on the western side of S. Gay Street.
The planned outage is as follows:

Dec 8,2009 12 Midnight to Dec 9,2009 at 6:00AM…..If it rains , Dec 10 from 2:00AM until 6:00AM.

The addresses and locations affected are:

3 Customers…139 S.Gay, 137 S. Gay, 135 S. Gay (Downstairs), 135 S. Gay (Upstairs),133-A S.Gay, 133-B S. Gay, 133-C S. Gay , 131 S. Gay, 119 S. Gay, 117 S. Gay SW (A1F0800197) Southern Alliance, 115 ½ SW S. Gay (A1F0800172) Southern Alliance, 115 ½ S. Gay(E1F0500044) URBHANA, and 113 S.Gay (UT Gallery),
Nama and Havana Nights Restaurants; David Dewhirst Properties @ 123 S. Gay St

Of course notice is also being provided by KUB normal channels but I was asked to post here as well. If you know of someone affected, please let them know.

My understanding is that this will basically complete the conversion from the old system to the new electric service. KUB has worked very hard to finish this complicated upgrade and we are thankful for their commitment to getting this job completed.

As many of you know, the sidewalk on the western side of S. Gay Street has been poured and is now functioning as the walkway (see below). Next week we will begin reconstructing both the roadway and the eastern sidewalk.

We are making progress on the western sidewalk in front of the VMC and Nash Properties. The steel is in place (see below) and we have begun the process of forming up the new sidewalk in anticipation of pouring concrete. We hope to have the concrete trucks in there by the middle of next week, weather permitting.

The next phase of sidewalk reconstruction will happen in front of the next two businesses ending at URBhana. Of course bridges and pathways will be in place for building access.

As we expected, this first piece of sidewalk construction presented some unexpected challenges but we think the next stretch of work will go much easier as we get our timing down.

This Friday is First Friday and also the Downtown Christmas parade so I hope many of you can come down to enjoy all of the events.

The Office of Special Events has really done a fine job this year as always and Downtown Knoxville really looks good for this Holiday Season.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - November 25, 2009

2009-11-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

Good progress continues to be made on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street. The two pictures below show the two sections of sidewalk which will be poured today (Wednesday). A two inch topping of concrete is yet to be poured which will have all of the decorative elements. This probably will not occur until spring as the temperature must remain reasonably warm for two to three days for the new concrete to cure.

The eastern sidewalk work will begin next week but not before the western sidewalk is opened back up. The roadway will also be reconstructed at the same time as the eastern sidewalk work.
Also material is being put in place to finish the grade of the road so this can all be wrapped up, hopefully before Christmas.

The columns have now all been cut to the proper lengths with the cross beams removed and the jackets placed to begin reinforcement of the existing columns. Concrete is being poured here and the hope is that we can begin forming this new section of sidewalk in the 100 Block next Wednesday.

Below is a picture of the forms used for the columns.

I stopped in and talked to the KUB crews about their progress and work here is proceeding as we hoped. Below is a picture of another old transformer about to be removed from its vault.

The Contractor plans to work Friday and Saturday and will pretty much be on a 6 day a week schedule for a while.

The next Streetscapes meeting is on November 30, 2009 at 5:00pm at the Emporium. I have posted an agenda in another post.

I hope to see all of you there.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and thanks for your interest.

November 30, 2009 Meeting Agenda

2009-11-23T05:46:00.000-08:00

1. Call to Order

2. Discussion of completed construction

3. Next phase of Construction
a. 200 Block of S. Gay Street
b. Column and sidewalks in the 100 Block of S. Gay Street

4. Other issues.
a. Signage and advertising
b. KPD issues
c. Parking

5. KUB outages

6. Adjourn

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2009-11-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

We have finally poured the first bit of concrete on the western side of the 200 Block of S. Gay Street. To the left of the new sidewalk are the new streetlight boxes. The next pour will link up this section of sidewalk with the section leading to Vine Avenue. The last section of sidewalk to be poured on the west side of S. Gay Street will finish at Summitt Hill and will necessitate a lane closure in the next few weeks as we will also move over into the eastern sidewalk at that time as well.

Our construction in the 100 Block cracked a couple of windows at the UT Art Gallery when a piece of one of the beams broke loose. We apologize to the folks there and have repaired one of the windows today.

In talking to a KUB rep today on site, I have learned that KUB is planning a power outage at 120 S. Gay Street on Sunday November 22, 2009 from 9:00am until 5:00pm. Folks have been notified as usual through the KUB process but thought I might note it here as well.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update 2 - November 19, 2009

2009-11-19T11:50:00.001-08:00

Here are a few additional pictures I took this afternoon. We have estimated that we have as many as 60 workers on site here today counting KUB crews so we are making a lot of progress.

The picture below shows the concrete saw being used to cut off the columns to the proper height and to cut loose the old beams for replacement. This process is a little noisy but not nearly as much as jackhammering or using the heavy drilling equipment.

The picture below is of the underground area looking toward Jackson Avenue.

The picture above is of the bridge system used to access the VMC apartments. Additional cross bracing was added just after I took the picture for safety.

Thanks

Construction Update - November 19, 2009

2009-11-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

We have made some good progress on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street as evidenced by the picture above. Crews are in the process of finishing up utility work and other crews have begun forming up the new sidewalk. We hope to pour concrete here tomorrow. It is hard to get a picture that will reflect how the sidewalk will look but if you get by there you can notice the location of the storm drains which will be at the curb. The road will be much more narrow, I think, than most people are aware of to accommodate a wider sidewalk with bump-outs and tree wells.

Work has now also started on the western sidewalk in front of the VMC as we had hoped (see below). We have removed the sidewalk for a length of eight of the columns and are now removing the old deteriorating beams, many of which we have now found were not even attached and basically crumble when disturbed. It is very evident that this project is very much needed.

KUB crews are moving forward as we had expected in energizing the new electric service and we can expect them to notify customers on the block in the next few weeks as outages are scheduled. I hope to be in that loop as well so I can notify folks here.

During the initial phase we left the sidewalk over into the VMC apartments (see above).

The bridge we plan to install over into the VMC apartments has already been constructed (see above).

Holes were bored in the old sidewalk and saw cuts made in the hope that entire sections of sidewalk could be removed at once and, as you can see from the above photo, so far we have had success in that effort. If we are able to continue with this process, this will save much time as well as noise and dust. We plan to begin reforming the new sidewalk early next week and will take precautions this weekend in case of rain. When we graded and repaved the underground area, we made sure to grade it such that all water underground flows away from the buildings and onto the lower Jackson Avenue area.

I have set up our next meeting for the 100 Block Streetscapes Project for November 30, 2009 at 5:00 pm at the Emporium to discuss latest developments and other issues. I will post an agenda soon and a press release will go out this week.

I am happy to report that City Council approved the purchase of the parking lot there on Jackson Avenue with closing to occur in late December, 2009. We are discussing various ways to improve and control that lot to help meet the needs of the Downtown area.

As always, thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - November 12, 2009

2009-11-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

As we all had hoped, work is progressing as planned on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street. We had hoped to begin reforming the new sidewalk this week but a rethinking by KUB of future sewer service will require additional excavation within the new sidewalk area. As a result the new sidewalk work will begin next week and this new design will serve the area even better in the future. KUB electric crews have made substantial progress in the last week with some very complex and critical work. Hopefully in a couple of weeks the first vault to be abandoned under the east sidewalk can be removed so we can proceed even further with our preliminary work on the east sidewalk. The picture below, although not one of my better pictures, shows the extent of the future sidewalk. A couple of the future street light bases are also now in place on the western sidewalk of the 200 Block.

I am also happy to report that we will begin sidewalk reconstruction in the 100 Block of S. Gay Street on Tuesday, November 17, 2009. This phase of work will involve cutting the existing sidewalk into large pieces for easier removal and then forming and pouring concrete to jacket the columns with new beams and lastly forming the new sidewalk. The area should only be daylighted no more than two days. The process of sidewalk removal should take around four to six hours. The entire process for each three column section will be two weeks or so. We will be able to more accurately estimate timing after this first section is completed. Also we will be forming the new pathway around the construction site and bridging over into the apartments into the VMC building so we will have a chance to correct any issues that may come from that process before we get to the more active areas of the block.

The picture below shows the beginning point of the sidewalk construction along Jackson Avenue.The blues lines indicate the location of future beams and also the column locations. The work will begin very near the street sign pole location on the right of the picture.

The first phase of work will probably end around the white circle indicating a column in the picture below. This will be a span of six underground columns.

Much work has been accomplished underground as well as is shown on the next two pictures below. A new sidewalk has been poured underground to replace the sidewalk that was broken up in construction. Concrete jackets will be formed around the columns as we replace each section of sidewalk.

In the picture above, it is interesting to note the old water main which served an ancient fire hydrant which has been out of service for many years.

This picture was taken in the middle of the street in the 200 Block and shows a storm drain, probably from the 1919 era which is completely blocked up with debris.

The Treble Clef statue was successfully moved in one piece last Thursday and we hope to erect one of the City Christmas trees here soon.

Lastly for those of you interested in the Jackson Avenue parking lot, the proposal to purchase this property is on the City Council agenda for Tuesday night, November 17, 2009.

I am hoping to set a meeting up to further discuss the ongoing construction as well as to explore ideas concerning advertising and/or signage among other topics. This meeting will likely be the end of November of first of December. Please let me know if you would like me to place any items on the agenda for discussion.

Thanks for your continued interest.

Construction Update - November 5, 2009

2009-11-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

Our work on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street is proceeding as we have planned. Most of the utility work is being completed. We had a little work in the intersection of Vine Avenue but were able to keep at least one lane of Vine Avenue open at all times. The next phase of work over the next week or so will involve hauling in rock for the finish grade and then hopefully pouring concrete in two weeks. We believe we can have the new sidewalk and possibly the new roadway in place by the first week of December and finish up the eastern sidewalk by Christmas.

You probably have noticed the Treble Clef statue being removed today. My understanding is that a new statue will be commissioned possibly using some of the old trolley rails. The Treble Clef will hopefully be restored and back in place at the Knoxville Arboretum.

If you have been anywhere near the sidewalk on the western side of the 100 Block of S. Gay Street near Jackson Avenue, you may have noticed the stringline markings and other details placed there in anticipation of the work in a couple of weeks. Work is going on underground there around the old columns and we are also pumping in concrete and bringing in the stone needed to restore the old sidewalk underground. Everyone is anxious to get started here and I will be blogging more about this soon.

It is First Friday tomorrow night and an exciting Woodworkers Exhibit is going on at the Emporium which is sure to bring in a lot of folks. The Contractor has been allowing the artists to offload their exhibits this week. The weather is supposed to be very nice so I hope folks can come down and enjoy the shops and restaurants on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street.

Unarmed Merchants, Nama, and Havana Nights have all been particularly impacted by our construction so please patronize them if you can.

Congratulations to our five new Council members, Nick Pavlis, Duane Grieve, Brenda Palmer, Daniel Brown, and Nick Della Volpe. I have been privileged to work with some of these fine folks in the past and look forward to working with all of them in the future.

Unfortunately, I have still not been able to get back to my everyday work but am hopeful that everything will get back to normal soon.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - October 29, 2009

2009-10-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

Fire Street Alley construction has now been basically completed and really looks good. A little work remains on the sidewalk and entrance area. The Contractor did a fine job, I think, of managing the concerns of the folks utilizing that pathway (see below) with minimal inconvenience.

The work on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street is progressing as we had hoped. Water line installation will begin next week and the sewer line extension should be finished this week. We are on schedule to begin reconstructing the new sidewalk and roadway in a couple of weeks so this is very good news.

This view (above) of the 200 Block of S. Gay Street is looking north from Summit Hill Drive

This view is from Vine Avenue looking south. Please note that we have moved the office trailer down onto the Jackson Avenue lot for the duration of the project.

Water meter boxes are currently being installed on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street as well as other incidental concrete work. Real progress has been made here as almost all of the utility work is now complete. KUB has their crews working to energize the new electric service in the next few weeks. Work in both the old vaults and the new vaults is continuing.

I am also glad to report that the work on the columns and sidewalks is still on track to occur in a couple of weeks. The Contractor is awaiting a new order for rebar based on the new designs and we will begin as soon is that material is received. The first phase, as we have stated, will begin at the Volunteer Ministry Building and proceed southward probably going 3 to 6 columns at a time. We hope to have the Surveyors transfer those locations of the columns up to the existing sidewalk so everyone can get a feel of the distances between columns. Of course the old sidewalk will be removed as a phase of this project and the column under the sidewalk will be reinforced with concrete. The exploratory digging is all but complete on the west side of S. Gay Street and is continuing on the east side. We are estimating at this time that it may take 2 to 3 weeks per section of sidewalk for completion. After this first bit of work is completed, however, we hope to provide a good estimate so folks can know when the work will occur in front of their residence or business. I will be getting with folks on the west side next week in an effort to understand any optimal times for our work as the removal phase will be quite disruptive, probably taking 4 hours or so. I think folks will be surprised when the first section of sidewalk is completed at just how much wider and nicer this will be. This new construction, coupled with the road and sidewalk completion in the 200 Block, should give everyone a real sense of the completed project.

We are now also moving over into the eastern sidewalk area with exploratory digging and other types of work. This area is proving to be much better as far as column location and strength and general conditions. The Contractor has punched his way out on the east side onto lower Jackson Avenue as depicted in the picture below. Debris for the digging and other excavation is being routed through here for disposal. It is also interesting to note the condition of the Jackson Avenue ramps in this picture. Note the deteriorating condition of the concrete at the top of the picture and the quick fix required to stabilize the condition.

The above view is of the eastern sidewalk showing both the existing sidewalk and facade and the lower 1919 section taken from the stairway on the old WNOX property leading to the units above the Emporium. The debris on the lower sidewalk is from the removal of the interior walls separating the old sidewalk into rooms as also occurred on the west side of the street.

Thanks for all the well wishes and encouragement from folks on the block on my return. It was greatly appreciated and as always, thanks for your interest in the Streetscapes Project.

I plan to schedule another meeting before Thanksgiving so I hope to see you all there.

Lane Closure

2009-10-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

KUB will be pulling high voltage cable tomorrow -Wednesday (Oct 28,) on Summit Hill Dr between Walnut St and State St in the Westbound travel lane of Summit Hill.

All traffic control device will be implemented from 8:00am to 5:00pm for this "lane closure"

Construction Update - October 22, 2009

2009-10-22T15:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks to those who attended the Streetscapes meeting on October 20 at the Emporium. Especially I would like to thank Hannah Parker, the City of Knoxville Downtown Coordinator among many other jobs she holds in the City, for directing the meeting in my absence along with several other folks from the City who attended.

Issues addressed ranged from 200 Block construction to signage, to security. Thanks to KPD for attending and continuing to help out here.

The four parking meters along short State Street have been put back in use and we believe the consensus is to make them 30 minute meters for short term parking as has been requested.

The 200 Block work is progressing quickly and we hope to be pouring concrete to reconstruct the west sidewalk and roadway in 2 to 3 weeks with final completion optimistically before Christmas.

Work on columns and sidewalks in the 100 Block should begin by Thanksgiving. I have been assured today that all design, cost, and construction details have been worked out so this is very good news.

The last bit of concrete has been poured for Fire Street Alley and a couple of sections of the adjoining sidewalk near O.P.Jenkins.

I hope to be back next week and have some more in depth news concerning construction. In the meantime, don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of help.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - October 15, 2009

2009-10-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

Fire Street alley has now been completed and I think it looks very good. There remains some work to be done on the sidewalk and alley entrance on the south end. We plan to replace the two panels on either side of the alley entrance since both have been cracked and patched through the years due to utility work.

We plan to begin the planned work on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street as early as today. This complete street closure may take up to three months but our goal is to try to have it substantially finished by Christmas. This will be the finished look with narrowed street and wider sidewalks, etc.

Visibility to the 100 Block form Summit Hill and Gay Street will certainly be enhanced when this is completed. One sidewalk will be open at all times. We plan to begin excavating the west sidewalk as well as the street itself and will probably have that finished by the weekend. A waterline is under the west sidewalk and it must be moved and replaced as part of this project. Pedestrian traffic will be diverted to the eastern sidewalk with signage while this work goes on. When this work is completed, the eastern sidewalk will be taken out and folks can then traverse the new, wider, western sidewalk.

Vine Avenue will remain open at all times throughout this work. After the 2oo Block is reopened, it is possible that we may have to very temporarily close some of Vine Avenue to complete the utility work.

KUB continues to make significant progress with electrical service. The rainy weather has had an effect lately but we are still on target to have the new service energized as we planned. Sometime in the next month we can expect some temporary outages and KUB will be in contact with those affected per their process. Hopefully, I will also be in the loop enough to help notify folks as well.

The construction office trailer (see below) will be moving onto the Jackson Avenue parking lot this week for the duration of the project.

We are moving forward on the purchase of this lot and have taken steps recently to have abandoned vehicles removed. This parking lot is all but full most days as most of you know.

We continue to experience delays on our 100 Block sidewalk and column replacement. The latest setback involves exploratory work we have done on the column support system. You may have noticed in some previous pictures that the columns are setting on some circular caissons under the sidewalk so the issue has been how to reinforce these structures for the new sidewalk. We discovered this past week that two of the columns have no support whatsoever.

As a result of this new information we are having to redesign this expanse. However, we feel that the rest of the design is still good to go and I remain hopeful that we can start in the next month.

My thought is that at some point soon the 200 Block will be completed and also as the 100 Block sidewalks are completed, folks will begin to get a real sense of the finished project as the widened and enhanced sidewalks from Jackson toward Vine are completed and when the western sidewalk is finished folks will once again have a great pathway to the businesses located there.

It is very hard right now to get a feel for how it may look so I am including the picture below. Please notice the fire hydrant near the center of the picture. This hydrant will be near the edge of the sidewalk on the eastern side. It is very hard to visualize here, but when you walk by there take a look at it. I think you will be surprised when you see just how much wider the sidewalk will be there.

After requests concerning parking in the area we plan to take the bags off of the meters on State Street (W. Vine) as early as today. I plan to ask for guidance at the meeting as to the timing of the meters as it has been suggested that we make these meters 15 to 30 minute only.

Also, please realize that these particular four meters will be going away in a few months as work progresses since this piece if the street will be eliminated. We will also be talking about possibly designating the parking space currently signed for KPD on the Gay Street Viaduct as temporary parking with some time period associated.

Please don't forget the 100 Block meeting at 5:30pm on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at the Emporium. I hope to have representatives from KPD, KUB, City Engineering, Southern Constructors, CBID, and other City staff folks there to help with any issues.

I look forward to seeing you then.

Streetscapes Meeting

2009-10-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

The next meeting is now scheduled for October 20, 2009 at 5:30pm at the Emporium.

The tentative agenda is as follows. Hope to see you there.

1. Call to Order
2. Discussion of completed construction
3. Next phase of Construction
a. 200 Block of S. Gay Street
b. Column and sidewalks in the 100 Block of S. Gay Street
4. Other issues
a. Signage and advertising
b. KPD issues
c. Parking
5. Adjourn

Construction Update - October 8, 2009

2009-10-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Please forgive this abbreviated update. I have been out of the office most of this week on a personal matter so I have not had time to check on construction as much as I normally do nor was I able to attend our construction meeting.

However, I was able to check in with our Job Superintendent today and he assures me 'all is well in Mayberry'. Just kidding.

Fire Street alley is all but completed and I know it was looking good last week. Thanks to the Contractor for accommodating everyone as best he could including garbage pickup.

It looks like we are on track to begin work on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street as early as the middle of next week. When I find out more I will post immediately but the thinking was that we would close this block off for three months and completely finish it up with new road and sidewalks.

Also next week, we will begin work underground on the columns and soon after the 100 Block sidewalks.

Next week, we will also begin work on waterlines in the 100 Block.

Last my friend wanted me to announce the annual City People Home Tour. Some of the homes are located in the 100 Block so this will be a good time for folks to check out downtown living.
The Home tour is this Sunday October 11th from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. It will be a fine day to tour 15 homes all over Downtown. Go to www.CityPeople.org or their Facebook page for more info.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - October 1, 2009

2009-09-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Work is progressing on the reconstruction of Fire Street Alley. The last phase near the O.P. Jenkins parking lot will begin on Monday, and we hope to have this phase of the project completed by late next week. There is still a little utility work there to complete as well.

Several water meters are to be installed in the 100 Block beginning next week. This should complete this portion of the infrastructure work for this utility for awhile.

KUB continues to work on energizing the newly installed electrical service in this area. The pictures below show the new transformer being installed into the new vault. Thanks to Keavon Ray for sending these to me. This continued work should allow us to continue on into the 200 Block of S. Gay Street as we have previously discussed by the middle of the month.

We also are hopeful that we can begin the work on the structural columns and then begin the sidewalk construction toward the middle of the month as well. Most of the issues have finally been settled so I know we are all looking forward to that work progressing.

I plan to schedule a meeting in October so please forward to me any agenda items you might want to have discussed.

I have been notified, and have noticed myself, that the 'We are Open' sign at Jackson has been down. Unfortunately that sign is not looking too good these days and has become almost impossible to keep up due to its tattered condition. I plan to discuss signage at our meeting as I believe it is obviously time to erect a new sign of some sort.

Our negotiations concerning the Jackson Avenue parking lot continue to go well. We still are planning improvements including signage there.

I know many of you have been interested in the timeline of the reconstruction of the Jackson Avenue ramps. After much discussion we have decided that the best course of action is to continue on as we have originally planned.

Here is a statement sent to some folks we have been meeting with concerning this issue distributed by Bob Whetsel, Director of Redevelopment within my Department.

'As some of you know but others may not, the city has decided to continue working on the Ramp replacement project using federal dollars allocated through the state bridge program. This means that the design process will be controlled by the Federal 4(f) process because of the historic nature of the structure. In practical terms this means that construction of the ramps is still several years out. I am not going to try time estimates except to say that 2013 is probably the earliest any project might begin and that would be optimistic. Cost to local government was the primary driver for the decision.

If there is structure failure during that time we will have to mitigate the situation as we did a few months ago when the Ramp was closed for a few days for repairs.'

Lastly, many thanks to Lt. Bobby Hubbs of the Knoxville Police Department who is retiring with over 30 years of service. Lt. Hubbs has been instrumental to many of our crime initiatives in the downtown area particularly and will be missed by many of us. He is going to work for the Knox County Sheriff in a newly formed crime analysis unit and I know we all wish him well in this new endeavor.

Another First Friday will roll around tomorrow and I know there are some exciting events planned at the Emporium and other venues so I look forward to seeing you there.

As always, thanks for your interest and suggestions.

Fire Street Alley closure on Wed., Sept. 30

2009-09-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

The Contractor wanted me to let everyone know that the Fire Street Alley will be completely blocked off for all traffic, including pedestrian, on Wed. Sept 30, from 7:00 AM until as late as 5:00 PM to pour concrete. Should be reopened that night. Hopefully we will finish up this week.

Please help me get the word out. Thanks

Construction Update - September 22, 2009

2009-09-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

Work continues in Fire Street alley and is scheduled to be completed in a couple of weeks. The old asphalt has been taken up and additional grading is being completed in the next week before stone is brought in and eventually a new concrete surface constructed. This pic is taken from below Jackson Avenue in front of Heuristics Workshop.

Electrical utility work is still on schedule as KUB has had two crews working to energize the newly installed electric service. A part of this work involves taking out the old transformer residing in an old electric vault in front of the Sterchi Building. Gordon Bryant of KUB sent me these interesting pictures of that transformer being installed over forty eight years ago in 1961. I find the background of these pictures interesting as well as it show some of the businesses and street traffic. This transformer weighed in at around 6500 pounds.

I found the picture above interesting in that the poster on the light pole appears to be for a United Way campaign.

This is a pic of the old transformer being removed. The old vault under the sidewalk will be demolished as part of the sidewalk construction process.

Some work is going on under the sidewalk on the west side of S. Gay Street as the coal shoots we have discovered going into many of the buildings are being covered up with steel plates in anticipation of the new construction.

Electric work is also being done in the sidewalk near the entrances to Havana Nights and Skyline Exhibits. This work should be completed this week. Note the massive old trolley rails. I have been told these weigh almost 100 pound per foot.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - September 17, 2009

2009-09-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

As many of you are aware, we have started the reconstruction project for the Fire Street alley. Most of the work will occur during daylight hours so the alley should be available most of the time after hours for foot traffic. At least some of the time, however, the conditions for traversing will not be ideal, especially with the rain events we have been experiencing. The alley functions, in some regard, as a drainage way as well as a travel way. The work is expected to take less than a month.

For those of you who may be reading this now and were unaware of this work I apologize. The decision to begin this work was made only two weeks ago and we tried, through this forum and through some selected phone calls and emails, to let folks know but I have since learned that not everyone was notified. I am thankful that many of you forward my posts to others who have an interest and encourage you all to continue that. I have a list of folks I send notices of the blog updates, usually every Thursday, and if anyone would like to be on that notification list, please let me know at remmett@cityofknoxville.org.

KUB crews continue to make progress in their work required to energize the newly installed electric service. They have been using two crews at least some of the time and we hope that stays on schedule so we can then move into the 200 Block construction as discussed previously.
We are hopeful that the 200 Block Construction can occur around the first of October.

The complicated process of trying to determine the best way to go about construction of the supporting columns under the sidewalk continues. We cannot begin work on the roadway itself until we also begin the work on the sidewalk because of probable damage to the roadway from the heavy equipment needed for the sidewalk construction.

Everyone associated with the project is as frustrated as the folks on the block that we have not been able, so far, to begin that phase of work on the 100 Block but we all remain hopeful that this work can begin very soon.

On a more positive note, the Engineers tell me we are one third of the way through the project and have accomplished one third of the work and spent one third of the budgeted amount of money so from that perspective we are on target. We have had to completely rephase all of the work, however, from our original plan. Almost all of the utility work has been finished on the 100 Block with this last bit of electric work KUB is doing, and much of the utility work has also been completed on the 200 Block. A few days of utility work remain on Jackson Avenue at the completion of the project.

We have been able to keep traffic flowing on Jackson Avenue although the original plans called for a complete closure. The same is true for Vine Avenue. We have managed to accommodate the influx of folks moving in and out on the 100 Block and have created various crossing points for folks on the block. The willingness of the folks at Southern Constructors to make suggestions and find ways to work for the benefit of the folks on the Block is refreshing and I know everyone is appreciative.

As many of you know, the Contractors, Subcontractors, Engineers and others have been working there almost seven months and I believe most of them feel they have become a small part of the community. I know in our construction meetings, the effect on folks on the block for the various work phases is very much on the mind of everyone in the room. All of the issues from parking to vagrancy are witnessed and shared by those folks. Many of them now frequent the shops and restaurants on the Block and downtown and are looking forward to making this one of the premier areas of the City.

I am very grateful to all of them for continuing to let me know of possible issues and ongoing problems so I can note them here. It has been and is a team effort and I continue to be grateful to folks on the 100 Block for their patience and understanding.

We had an unfortunate occurrence earlier in the week in that a gas line ruptured in the excavation process. This happened right at the lunch hour unfortunately and I was notified immediately. The Construction crews apologized profusely to me although it was just an inadvertent mistake, one of the very few made so far. The repair was made in a couple of hours and the whole event may have lasted three hours.

In closing, we realize the seriousness of timing and are working as hard as we can to resolve all of the issues so we can complete this project as originally scheduled. I must point out once again that the target date for completion is August 2010, which is eleven months from now.

Thanks for your interest.

Construction Update - September 10, 2009

2009-09-10T06:43:00.000-07:00

Plans are being made to begin the work on Fire Street alley as early as next week. We are waiting on Tennessee One Call to mark out the utilities before we begin and we expect that to be completed by the end of the week. Some of the utilities have already been marked and those of you who venture that way can see just how many utilities exist in that small area.

Still, we are hopeful that we can proceed as planned with minimal utility conflict there. The work will probably take close to a month, maybe less.

The phasing of work, as I understand it, will be to begin at Jackson Avenue going north with milling up the existing asphalt and surface, followed by some grading, and then finally pouring of concrete, probably in three phases.

We have discussed the issues of access for folks who use the parking garage across Fire Street as well as the garbage collection issues and hopefully can work around those situations with minimal disruption.

Electrical work appears to have accelerated on the 100 Block and we are hopeful that KUB will be far enough along that we can proceed with utility work, including final grade work, in the 200 Block of S. Gay Street as we had planned a few weeks ago. The work in the 200 Block may take up to three months but should have the finished look when completed.

We continue to have some issues to resolve with the supporting structures under the sidewalks and are working through yet another design and the costs associated. As soon as those issues are resolved, we will begin that work. We are still planning to start construction on the west sidewalk at Jackson Avenue.

The Jackson Avenue parking lot continues to get heavy use. I noted 130 cars parked there yesterday. As soon as we receive a written document from the owner, we will proceed with our planned signage and other possible upgrades.

Just to clarify from the most recent article by Hayes Hickman in the News- Sentinel concerning the Jackson Avenue parking lot acquisition, we intend to provide free parking at least until the end of the Streetscapes Project.

I attended another successful First Friday and was glad to see so many folks downtown and on the 100 Block. It was an eventful weekend for sure.

Thanks for your interest.

Jackson Avenue Parking Lot

2009-09-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

I have some good news!

This afternoon we have reached agreement on the City of Knoxville purchase of this property. I don't have any details but it seems we have regained control over this much needed free parking.

I'll post more later about this but we are grateful to the property owners for their assistance and willingness to work with us.

Construction Update - September 3, 2009

2009-09-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

Due to some potential conflicts with KUB electrical service, we have decided to delay the construction on the 200 Block of S. Gay Street for some time, possibly a month.

In order to keep the project on schedule and to keep Contractors working, we now plan to go ahead and complete the work to be done in the Fire Street Alley between S. Gay Street and State Street behind the Sterchi and the Emporium. This work was phased for the end of construction but can also be completed now. It will involve milling up the pavement and asphalt and pouring concrete with some very minor utility work.

If anyone has any issues to be considered here, please notify me. I am aware of the garbage collection issues there and possible other access issues. These were situations that we knew we would have to deal with from the first. I also believe there may be some drainage issues which hopefully can be addressed as well.
We had what I believe was a very productive meeting today on the issue of column replacement and all parties seem to be working toward a resolution. I am very hopeful that I will be able to report on a timeline in the near future for work on the sidewalks.

I have relayed as best I know them, the various schedules and timing issues with folks on the 100 Block to the Contractor for consideration in the scheduling of work. Please continue to let me know your needs in this area.

The issue of the Jackson Avenue parking lot has now been resolved and the City will be purchasing the property as per our original terms as I understand it. Thanks to all who worked on this including the property owners and KCDC.

I believe Mr. Michael Haynes article in Metro Pulse today very correctly outlined the problem and issues and now we are a little closer to getting a handle on the issue of parking in the area.

I am looking forward to another successful First Friday tomorrow with Boomsday and also football to follow. I hope everyone has a nice Holiday and will hopefully see you on the 100 Block.

Thanks for your interest.

Jackson Avenue Parking Lot

2009-09-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

Although I do not have a definitive confirmation of this yet, I thought I would pass along a bit of information I heard in our construction meeting this morning. Our Contractor told me that someone purporting to represent the property owner of the parking lot on Jackson Avenue told them that, possibly beginning as early as tomorrow, parking will not be allowed. Not sure exactly what that means but thought I would pass it on.

We are continuing our efforts to purchase this property but negotiations have not been productive to date.

As you know from my previous post, free parking is available under the James White Parkway on Jackson and also at Depot. As always the Coliseum lot is also available as well as many others. For a map and better list of available parking areas, please refer to the the City of Knoxville website at http://www.cityofknoxville.org/.

Construction Update

2009-08-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

As you all probably know, we are continuing to work on utilities, primarily stormwater at this time, in the 200 Block of S. Gay Street and occasionally back into the intersection with Vine Avenue.

We still are planning to work in the 2oo Block for the next several months until completion.

The picture below reflects generally the way this will look as we go forward. The scale is such that it is impossible to read, but a sign has been erected leading folks to the open sidewalk for access.

Additionally, we have moved the "We are Open" sign to the intersection with Summitt Hill as well for increased visibility.

Mostly electrical utility work remains in the 100 Block and should be finished in a couple of weeks depending on the scheduling of crews by KUB.

This picture is of the stormwater installation near the corner of Vine Avenue. We have removed a small portion of the sidewalk here to accomplish this task.

Above is a view of the 100 Block looking north

This is another picture of the 100 Block looking south.

Many people continue to have curiosity over the 'underground area' under the western sidewalk on the 100 Block. Here is a view from underground showing a coal shoot to the left of column 19. Notice the original brick leading to the basement areas.

This is another view of the underground as you enter from the stairway on Jackson Avenue under the Gay Street Viaduct.

We still have not heard anymore about the proposal on the Jackson Avenue parking lot situation detailed in my previous post. Just as soon as I know more, I will post it here.

Thanks for your interest.

City's Lease on Parking Lot Set to Expire

2009-08-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

The City of Knoxville has begun notifying those parking in the parking lot at the corner of Gay and Jackson that its lease on the lot expires at the end of the month. Beginning, Tuesday, September 1, the city will be unable to assure that parking is available at that location. The City is hopeful that the owner of the lot will agree to the city’s offer to purchase the lot, pending approval by council, in which case the lease will be continued until the property transfer is finalized. If a tentative agreement is not reached free parking is available on Depot Street and in new lots under Interstate 40 near Magnolia and under the James White Parkway in the Old City.

KUB closure

2009-08-24T10:51:00.001-07:00

S. Gay Street Lane Closure.

KUB crews will close one northbound lane of traffic at the W. Summit Hill intersection from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. beginning Monday evening, August 24, and lasting through Tuesday morning, August 25, as natural gas system repairs are completed. One northbound lane of S. Gay Street will remain open during this period. This work was originally scheduled to take place on August 20-21, but was rescheduled due to weather.

Construction Update

2009-08-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

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.

Construction Update

2009-08-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of those who attended our meeting on August 11, 2009. Your input is invaluable to us as we move this project forward.

As many of you know, we are working in the 200 Block on the sewer line and are trying to reopen S. Gay Street here each night.

When this is completed this week, we plan to move back into the intersection of Vine Avenue and S. Gay Street for around 3 weeks to finally tie in all of the utilities there. We are anticipating hitting more rock,unfortunately, so the work will likely be noisy and slow.

When that section of work is finished, we are now planning to completely shut down the 200 Block once again, leaving one sidewalk open at a time, as we finish up almost all of the work there. The first phase will be both in the roadway and also on the west sidewalk and will involve dealing with the fencing and landscaping next to the Sterchi Building parking lot as well.
When this is completed, then the eastern sidewalk will be reconstructed.

The result should be that, in three months or so, the 200 Block of S. Gay Street will be completed with new road, sidewalks and street furniture.

We also are planning to begin work on the sidewalk areas in the next month to six weeks as well. When that determination is made, I will schedule another meeting with the community.

It is my understanding that most of the folks moving in and out have finished so we will once again be strictly limiting access to the 100 Block. If anyone has a particular moving need, please contact me or if you see one of the folks at Southern Constructors on site, ask them for assistance.

Construction Update

2009-08-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

Work is proceeding in the 2oo Block of S. Gay Street to replace the sewer line. One lane of the street may be open periodically using flagman as we have done before. The complete closure may occur in the next couple of weeks for up to three months. We continue to discuss logistics surrounding this next phase of work and are interested in your comments. I am hopeful that this topic will generate discussion at our 100 Block meeting on August 11, 2009 at 5pm at the Emporium. I have shared my views concerning keeping a least one sidewalk open with adequate signage and I have been assured that this will happen. Also, we have stated that under no circumstances can Vine Avenue and the 200 Block both be closed at the same time. The plan we have discussed also works around that situation. The idea is to go ahead and almost completely finish this phase of work including road and sidewalk so it will be virtually finished. I think this can be helpful as we will have created a more inviting entrance into the 100 block and will also showcase what the 100 Block will look like on completion.

There will likely be rock in at least some of the excavation in Vine Avenue and on the 200 Block so you can expect a bit more noise. There still remains a few utility conflicts to work out but we continue to make progress.

We also have a little more work to do on the 100 Block as several water meters need to be set.
The structural column work is still under review and sidewalk work will probably not commence before September. This work is still planned to start at the former Volunteer Ministry site and proceed south. Some of the discussion concerns the treatment of the remaining older sidewalk and our desire to rebuild it back to the way we found it.

You have probably noticed that we have taken down most if not all of the burlap on the fence. I think this has helped the look of the block since you can now see across the sidewalk once again. It is still a construction zone but that is progress.

As many of you have noticed, this past week and weekend was the time of year for folks to move in and out and many thanks to the Contractors for their assistance in getting people in and out of the work zone to move successfully. I related to KPD that anyone wishing to come into the work zone to load or unload needs to coordinate that move with folks at Southern Constructors who are responsible for the work site. Under no circumstances are people to move the construction barricades and pull into the 100 Block work area without permission. All of the building owners know how to get in touch with the Contractor for help hopefully in advance of any loading/unloading.

I hope everyone enjoys First Friday this week. It looks like the weather should cooperate. The shops and Galleries on the 100 Block rely on the continued support of all of us. I hope to see you there.

August 11, 2009 meeting

2009-08-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Media Advisory

What: The City of Knoxville is hosting a public meeting updating the status of the ongoing Gay Street Streetscapes project on the 100 and 200 Blocks of Gay Street

When: 5 p.m., Tuesday, August 11

Where: Emporium Building, 100 S. Gay Street

This is the latest in an ongoing series of periodic meetings to provide an update on construction activities on the 100 and 200 blocks of Gay Street and discuss various issues with residents and business owners. City officials and contractors will also talk about future work and schedules during the meeting.

The near $4 million project is slated to last 18 months and includes much needed repair and reconstruction work on the underground structures supporting the block – which was raised above the original street in 1919. The work also includes the replacement of the street and both sidewalks, major utility upgrades and streetscape improvements.

More information about the Gay Street Streetscapes Project is available at www.cityofknoxville.org/policy/100block

100 Block Streetscapes
Agenda
August 11, 2009
5:00 pm
Emporium

1. Call to Order
2. Review of work to date
3. Work to be accomplished in the next two months
a.) Utility work at Vine Avenue
b.) Utility work and Streetscape on the 200 Block
c.) Work on sidewalks
d.) Grading of 100 Block
4. Other issues
a.) Deliveries
b.) Parking lot
c.) Security
d.) Access
5. Questions and concerns
6. Adjourn

Construction Update

2009-07-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

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