When the Cumberland Avenue Corridor Project’s sole bid came out to $25 million, it was back to the drawing board for project manager Anne Wallace and her team of city consultants.
Though the massive reconstruction was originally slated to begin January 2015, City of Knoxville officials announced in a Dec. 17 press release that the original plans must be reworked, likely pushing the project’s start date into this upcoming summer.
“We felt the best course of action would be to reject that bid and to go back out after making some improvements to the bid documents and the opportunities for the contractors to complete the work and look to see if can get some more successful competition on the project, so we have better pricing and more interest from the contractors who typically do this kind of work,” Wallace said.
Budgeting roadblocks aside, the fundamental logistics of the project have not changed.
Phase One, according to Wallace, will focus on renovating underground utilities such as storm water drains, sewage and gas lines in addition to synchronized turn signals on Alcoa Highway and Volunteer Boulevard.
“The first phase basically sets up utilities and also the exit points from West Volunteer Boulevard and 22nd Street, allowing for better exit out of those areas,” Wallace said. “So if someone is traveling from Cumberland while we are working on second phase, they can route to either Lake or White Avenue if they don’t specifically have something to do on Cumberland and block construction, so it still sets us up for Phase Two.”
This second phase, referred to as the ‘road diet,’ will channel its efforts into a new left turn lane to reduce congestion and a 14-foot sidewalk that includes recycling bins, benches and planters as a buffer for pedestrians on The Strip.
Other suggestions for improvement emerged from Nissa Dahlin-Brown, associate director for the Howard Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, and her October 2013 team of student researchers who analyzed parking availability and the overall function of Cumberland Avenue.
Considering the scope of street’s renovation, transportation savvy for a “diverse and complex area of town” persists for the student researchers as a necessity for surviving The Strip during its renovation.
“I remember the kids telling me how they noticed that the city has marked the streets for bike ways, and I think in the original plans, they didn’t really have many places for bikes to park,” Dahlin-Brown said. “Just an education campaign would go along way, and that was something I hadn’t thought about at first, but the students really thought could be improved upon.”
But before any white lines are painted, Wallace and the CAPC members must negotiate a fresh timeline with merchants before new dates are set. At the time of last October’s bid, the completion date was set for Fall 2017.
“Certainly folks are frustrated, and I can put myself in that category as well,” Wallace said about the construction’s delay. “At the same time, we all recognize that a project of this magnitude and this scope, and we want to make sure we are getting a project that we can both afford and will be done in a timely manner with a reputable company.”
