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South Illinois Avenue to re-open by midnight

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South Illinois Avenue is expected to re-open by midnight Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, near the University of Tennessee Arboretum after being closed for more than two days because of a large high-voltage transmission tower that was knocked over in a crash on Friday. The repair work is pictured above on Sunday. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

South Illinois Avenue is expected to re-open by midnight near the University of Tennessee Arboretum after being closed for more than two days because a large high-voltage transmission tower was knocked over near the road in a crash on Friday. The road re-opening is expected to occur before the Monday morning commute.

Power is still out for a small southeast portion of the city near the crash site, including the University of Tennessee Arboretum, the City of Oak Ridge said Sunday evening.

The single-vehicle crash into the Tennessee Valley Authority steel lattice transmission tower was reported at Union Valley Road at about 4:15 p.m. Friday. That section of the four-lane road, also known as State Route 62 and Pellissippi Parkway, has been closed since shortly after the crash. The road is the main connection between Oak Ridge, Knox County, and Knoxville.

TVA and the Oak Ridge Electric Department worked over the weekend to replace the damaged transmission tower, which carries TVA and Oak Ridge power lines. The repair crews had help from the Oak Ridge Police Department and Oak Ridge Public Works Department. It was a complex emergency repair, the City of Oak Ridge said.

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South Illinois could re-open Monday

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Crews repair the damage to the Tennessee Valley Authority distribution system after a pickup truck crashed into a high-voltage steel lattice transmission tower, causing widespread power outages in Oak Ridge and the surrounding area on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Work to repair the damage to a Tennessee Valley Authority transmission tower knocked over in a crash on Friday could be complete in time to open South Illinois Avenue (State Route 62) in time for the Monday morning commute, a spokesperson said Sunday.

However, the schedule could be affected by weather and any potential drilling delays.

TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said heavy equipment, materials, and workers, as well as safety and engineering plans, are required to replace the large high-voltage steel lattice tower that was knocked over by a pickup truck Friday afternoon. The safety and engineering were completed Friday evening, Brooks said.

“The heavy equipment, materials, and manpower needed to perform the work are either on site or en route,” he said. “We currently expect the work to be completed in time for Highway 62 to be open for the Monday morning commute. Risks to that schedule are weather and potential drilling delays due to the topography (i.e. rock).”

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ORNL, Boeing to receive Guinness World Records title for largest solid 3D printed item

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ORNL Manufacturing Demonstration Facility Polymer Printer

This large-scale polymer printer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility was used to fabricate the Shelby Cobra. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 2:45 p.m.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Boeing Company are expected to receive the Guinness World Records title for largest solid 3D printed item, a media advisory said.

On Monday, an official Guinness World Records judge will measure and award the title of largest solid 3D printed item to ORNL and Boeing for a 3D printed tool used in manufacturing the Boeing 777X passenger jet. The media has been invited.

The invitation-only ceremony is at 11 a.m. Monday, August 29, at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at 2370 Cherahala Boulevard, off Pellissippi Parkway at Hardin Valley Road. [Read more…]

Council agenda: Marina bathroom audit, Charter Review Committee, Oak Ridge Corridor

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Oak Ridge City Council on July 27, 2015

The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will hear a report on an audit of the costs and procedures associated with renovating the bathrooms at the Oak Ridge Marina, appoint a seven-member Charter Review Committee, and consider setting up a five-member Oak Ridge Corridor Initiative Committee. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will hear a report on an audit of the costs and procedures associated with renovating the bathrooms at the Oak Ridge Marina, appoint a seven-member Charter Review Committee, and consider setting up a five-member Oak Ridge Corridor Initiative Committee.

Questions have occasionally been raised about the cost of renovating the marina bathrooms, and the City Council will hear the results of a financial audit by Coulter and Justus during the meeting tonight (Monday, October 12).

Also tonight, the City Council will appoint the seven members of a Charter Review Committee. The Charter Review Committee is called for in the City Charter. [Read more…]

Highway should be renamed Oak Ridge Corridor, Alexander says

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U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

Lamar Alexander

The highway that runs from Oak Ridge to the Knoxville airport should be renamed the Oak Ridge Corridor, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander said Thursday.

The highway starts in Oak Ridge as South Illinois Avenue, and it turns into Pellissippi Parkway.

Alexander, a former Tennessee governor, said he wants to give the area a signature like Research Triangle in North Carolina or Silicon Valley in California.

“I can think of no better calling card for a job recruiter than to be able to go anywhere in the world and say, ‘I’m from the Oak Ridge Corridor,'” the Tennessee Republican said in a press release after speaking to Rotary members at the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge. “In Anderson, Roane, and Knox counties, more than 40,000 people have graduate or professional degrees. This includes 1,600 scientists and engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, more than 1,000 PhDs at the University of Tennessee, and hundreds of engineers at Tennessee Valley Authority and at Y-12 National Security Complex. We are in the middle of one of our country’s most formidable concentrations of brainpower.” [Read more…]

Updated: Andy Allen, missing ORHS senior, had been lost in woods

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Andy Allen

Andy Allen

Note: This story was updated at 11:20 a.m.

Andy Allen, the 17-year-old Oak Ridge High School senior who had been missing since Saturday night, has been found safe after getting lost in the woods, authorities said Tuesday morning.

Allen told deputies that he was unable to find his way out of the woods, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office said.

Allen had been missing since early Sunday morning after leaving his father’s home in west Knox County on foot. He was reunited with his parents on Tuesday morning.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office said a witness saw Allen walk out of the woods on Hart Road in Knox County around 8 a.m. He then walked to the Weigel’s on Northshore Drive off Pellissippi Parkway.

“A second person identified him and called 911,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “When Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived, he had been taken to a back room at the store. Rural Metro examined him and then he was sent home with his parents.”

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Oliver Springs man dies in Pellissippi Parkway crash

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A 73-year-old Oliver Springs man died in a Sunday morning crash on Pellissippi Parkway, authorities said.

The collision that killed Eddy Palmer involved three vehicles and two separate crashes between Topside Road and Alcoa Highway in the eastbound lanes of Pellissippi Parkway, the Alcoa Police Department said.

The first two-vehicle crash occurred at about 8:12 a.m. Sunday when James Green, 28, of Knoxville, was momentarily blinded by the sun, causing the eastbound 1992 Honda Accord he was driving to rear-end a 2006 Ford Ranger pickup truck driven by Palmer, who lived on Joel Road in Oliver Springs, the police department said. There were no injuries in the initial crash. [Read more…]

Maynardville teen taken to UT hospital after car hits tree

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A Maynardville teenager was taken to a Knoxville hospital after the car in which he was riding spun out on South Illinois Avenue on Saturday evening and hit a tree near Edgemoor Road.

Jason Hale, 18, of Raccoon Valley Road, was trapped or had to be extricated, an Oak Ridge Police Department crash report said. He was injured and taken by ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, the report said. [Read more…]

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