June 26, 2014 - Anticipate seeing lots of asphalt trucks throughout Knoxville in the coming months.
It's the peak season for street repaving. The City of Knoxville will be resurfacing more than 54 miles of roads in the coming year. Roughly 9 miles are repaved in each City Council district each year.
"As a rule of thumb, local streets are resurfaced on a 20-year cycle, collectors every 15 years and arterials every 10 years," said Jim Hagerman, the City's Director of Engineering.
The primary function of local streets is to allow access to properties on the street, so local streets are typically neighborhood residential streets. The primary function of arterial streets is to move traffic; an example would be Kingston Pike. Collector streets fall in between the two – they both allow access to properties and move traffic, but to a lesser degree than local or arterial streets.
"We know that maintaining streets is very important to residents, and we want to be responsive and give residents a say in the resurfacing schedule," Hagerman said. "That's why we encourage Knoxvillians to call 311 and report potholes and worn asphalt.
"We drive every street every two years for site-specific evaluation. Because we recognize that we can't evaluate all of the roughly 1,000 miles of Knoxville streets as frequently as the people who live on them, we welcome citizen input. We compile a resurfacing schedule using common sense, even-handedness and sound engineering guidelines, and information from citizens is considered when choosing the streets to be resurfaced in a given year."
The 2014-15 budget reflects about $6.8 million for repaving - including an estimated $1 million from KUB.
"We put a lot of effort into coordinating with utilities so that they can avoid digging up freshly resurfaced streets," Hagerman said. "If there is extensive utility work on a street that would not otherwise need resurfacing, the utility company covers the cost of resurfacing."
Here's a highlighted list of some of the larger street repavings in each of the six City Council districts:
1st District
West Blount Avenue, between Hawthorne Avenue and West Martin Mill Pike Lake Avenue, between Volunteer Boulevard and Melrose Place Two sections of Magazine Road, from West End to Stone Road and from Stone Road to West Ford Valley Road West Red Bud Road, between Chapman Highway and Mayflower Drive Royal Heights Drive, between Stone Road and Judith Drive Sarvis Drive, between Stone Road and Maple Loop Road Neubert Springs Road, between West Martin Mill Pike and Okeh Lane
2nd District
Bennett Place, between Middlebrook Pike and South End Two sections of North Cedar Bluff Road, from Sherrill Boulevard to Interstate 40 and from I-40 to North Peters Road Executive Park Drive, between North Cedar Bluff Road and Park Village Road Manderly Way, between Somerset Road and Vanosdale Road Park Village Road, between Parktop Lane and Executive Park Drive North Peters Road, between North Cedar Bluff Road and Kingston Pike Somerset Road, between Manderly Way and Manderly Way Ainsworth Drive, between Corteland Drive and Marlboro Road Broome Road, between Corteland Drive and Middlebrook Pike
3rd District
Amherst Road, between Jackson Road and Middlebrook Pike Cain Road, between McKamey Road and Lee Road Cecil Johnson Road, between McKamey Road and Cain Road Chatham Circle, between Glade Hill Drive and Glade Hill Drive Glade Hill Drive, between Chatham Circle and Piney Grove Church Road Lake Brook Boulevard, between North End and Middlebrook Pike Park Hill Circle, between Glade Hill Drive and South End Richmond Avenue, between Richmond Hill Road and Western Avenue
4th District
Dahlia Drive, between Bernhurst Drive and Hotel Road Essary Drive, between North Broadway and Jacksboro Pike East Glenwood Avenue, between North Broadway and North Sixth Avenue Grainger Avenue, between North Broadway and Eighth Avenue Three sections of Green Valley Drive, from South Chilhowee Drive to Farragut Drive, from Farragut Drive to Holston Hills Road, and from Holston Hills Road to East Sunset Road Two sections of Luttrell Street, from East Glenwood Avenue to Lovenia Avenue and from Grainger Avenue to South End Shady Dell Trail, between West Sunset Road and South Chilhowee Drive Westover Terrace, between West Sunset Road and Holston Hills Road
5th District
Three sections of Bruhin Road, from Heins Court to Breda Drive, from Breda Drive to Heiskell Avenue, from East Inskip Drive to Tims Lane Coster Road, between North End and Dutch Valley Drive High School Road, between East Inskip Drive and Hayes Road Ho-co-ta-ke Lane, between North End and Pleasant Ridge Road East Inskip Drive, between I-75 and Bruhin Road Inskip Road, between Cedar Lane and Bruhin Road Tennessee Avenue, between Schofield Street and Burnside Street Highland Drive, between Scheel Road and Inskip Road
6th District
Ailor Avenue, between North 21st Street and Western Avenue Brooks Avenue, between Wilder Place and Boyds Bridge Pike Dale Avenue, between the I-40 ramp and Western Avenue Dartmouth Road, between Wedgewood Road and McDonald Road Exemouth Drive, between Tynemouth Drive and Wedgewood Drive Plymouth Drive, between McDonald Road and West Sunset Road Wedgewood Drive, between Skyline Drive and West Sunset Road Sutherland Avenue, between Hollywood Road and Tobler Lane