Sections of the gravel portion of Tuskegee Drive will be closed for repairs from March 4-11.
The Oak Ridge Public Works Department will be doing the road repairs subject to weather conditions.
The work will require sections of the road to be closed for the day starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 3 p.m., a press release said.
“Provisions will be made for residents to access their properties,” the release said. “There will be no through traffic during the closures.”
Information from WYSH Radio
The Oliver Springs Town Council met Thursday night in regular session and then held a budget workshop. Our partners at BBB-TV report that the main topic at the workshop was how much of an increase in water and sewer rates will be necessary to offset a projected shortfall of almost $248,000 in the city’s Water and Sewer Department.
The city has already borrowed some $2.5 million to pay for repairs to the city’s aging sewer plant as mandated by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and repaying that loan led to much of the projected shortfall.
During the workshop, officials seemed to indicate that a 15 percent hike will be needed this year, but that will not be enough to meet future needs. Keeping the city’s Water and Sewer department going could require 2 percent to 3 percent rate hikes each year for the next several years.
No votes were taken during Thursday’s work session. The Oliver Springs Water Board will meet again on June 4 and could take some action at that time.
Roane State Community College’s main campus in Harriman will be closed Wednesday, May 27, while the water line that supplies the campus is under repair.
During the repairs, water to the campus will be shut off. All other Roane State locations will be open and on schedule.
Two classes in session on May 27 have been relocated to the Princess Theatre and to Channel 15 television station in downtown Harriman.
The main campus will reopen Thursday, May 28.
The Johnson Gap Road Bridge is pictured above closed on January 1, 2015. (Photo by John Huotari)Â
Information from WYSH Radio
Note: This story was updated at 12:45 p.m. Feb. 3.
Work on the long-awaited project to repair the CSX Railroad-owned bridge on Johnson Gap Road in the Dutch Valley community has finally begun.
Anderson County Commission Chairman Robert McKamey told WYSH Radio in Clinton that the railroad has assured him the work should be done within the next three to four weeks.
Crews on Monday began the long-awaited repair of the bridge. [Read more…]
Parts of Tuskegee Road in central Oak Ridge will be closed temporarily for repairs to the gravel section of the road. The closure is scheduled to start Monday, January 26, and end Friday, January 30, weather permitting.
The repairs will be done by the Oak Ridge Public Works Department. The work will require sections of the road to be closed during the day starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 3 p.m., a city press release said.
There will be no through traffic during the closures, although provisions will be made for residents to access their properties.
For additional information about the Public Works Department, call (865) 425-1875 or visit www.OakRidgeTN.gov.
Information from WYSH Radio
Anderson County Commission Chairman Robert McKamey says he has been in regular contact with a project manager for CSX Railroad, and the repairs planned at the Johnson Gap Road Bridge are still expected to begin before the end of this month.
The bridge has been closed for almost a year and a half after state inspectors determined it was unsafe for travel. Residents and emergency responders have complained bitterly about the extra time that it now takes to get to and from Clinton from that part of Dutch Valley.
Earlier this year, the company gave the county two options for addressing the problem—replacing it at county expense or repairing it at theirs. The County Commission voted to let the company pay for repairing the bridge, and McKamey told WYSH Radio in Clinton that the project is slated to begin sometime in the second half of November and could be completed by the end of the year.
One of two trees that fell on a home on West Wadsworth Circle. The second tree, visible on the ground in the background, punched a hole in the roof and displaced a mother, grandmother, and two children.
Note: This story was last updated at 2:40 p.m.
Roughly 4,000 customers lost power in the Tuesday evening storm, and about 70 damaged homes will require repairs by an electrician before power can be restored, an Oak Ridge official said Wednesday morning.
Oak Ridge Electric Director Jack Suggs said he doesn’t recall ever having 70 homes damaged in one storm, although the Electric Department has experienced worse storms when many utility poles were broken. But the brief, fierce Tuesday storm, which brought severe winds and driving rain, was significant in terms of its damage to homes and its far-reaching nature, from Blair Road on the west end of town to east Oak Ridge and beyond—into Clinton and Anderson County, Suggs said.
“It was pretty widespread,” Suggs said.
Janet Bowker, left, walks through debris on Plymouth Circle in front of her home, where a tree fell into her bedroom during the Tuesday evening storm. Her home is at right but not visible in this picture. There were no injuries, but Bowker does not have power now.
The storm, which ripped through Oak Ridge at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, left a trail of debris:Â scattered branches and limbs, broken trees, fallen power lines, and damaged buildings and homes. It also triggered a flood of calls to the city’s 911 call dispatch center.
About 500 customers remained without power around noon Wednesday, including the 70 damaged homes. [Read more…]
Jim Odle of Odle and Young Architects in Knoxville shows a picture of a repair during a Thursday code enforcement hearing on four Applewood Apartments buildings. Also pictured at front center is Joe Levitt, owner of the apartment complex.
With no objections from members, a city board on Thursday reaffirmed a decision from more than two years ago to declare four Applewood Apartment buildings unfit for human occupation and use, and declare them nuisances.
Joe Lee, a member of the Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals, said the board’s November 2010 decision on the four buildings on Hunter Circle has already been upheld by the Anderson County Chancery Court and the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
It wasn’t immediately clear what might happen next, including whether apartment owner Joe Levitt, a Knoxville attorney, might appeal the decision, and whether the city might issue an order to vacate the buildings. [Read more…]
Trina Baughn
After more than an hour of discussion, the Oak Ridge City Council on Monday approved the borrowing of $18 million in low-interest state loans to help pay for a $23 million project to fix the municipal sewer system.
Council voted 6-1 to borrow the money at a 1.23 percent interest rate through the State Revolving Fund program, which is administered by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
The work is being done to comply with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order that requires Oak Ridge to repair all sewer system overflows by Sept. 28, 2015.
Workers replace bulging, cracking brick walls at Woodland Elementary School with a stucco-like material called EIFS.
Repair work has been under way this summer at Woodland Elementary School in Oak Ridge.
Workers are replacing the building’s bulging and cracking brick exterior with a stucco-like material called EIFS.
They’re also replacing shifting and sunken concrete slabs in three classrooms and putting a pier underneath the library, where walls had shifted and the building had dropped after soil underneath it had settled.
