Blog: City Blog

#KnoxvilleJobWellDone: 1 Woman, 40 Projects, $72 M? 'That's What We Do'

Robin Tipton is an engineer's engineer.

As a City Engineering Manager II, she figuratively keeps the trains running on time. Literally, she oversees all the City's capital projects - roads, sidewalks, ramps, curbs, drainage infrastructure, streetscapes, bridges. You name it, she's done it.

That means scrutinizing multi-million-dollar contracts and making sure that all work meets exacting standards.

Robin Tipton (right) and Engineering Inspector Randy Williams carefully check the slope of a new sidewalk on South Castle Street. They are making sure the new sidewalk meets ADA accessibility standards.

It also means looking out for the taxpayers and negotiating with contractors if an estimate comes in higher than expected.

The volume ebbs and flows year to year as projects get finished and new ones get started, but just a few years ago, Tipton was managing 40 projects budgeted at $72 million - an all-time high.

"I am a steward for the taxpayers," says Tipton, a 25-year City engineer who - much to her co-workers' regret - will be retiring in early 2022. "I look at public dollars no differently than I do my household budget. If a price is way too high, and doesn't meet standard pricing, it's my job to negotiate to get it there."

In the photo above, Tipton is laser-focused on the specifications of a sidewalk that had been poured in East Knoxville.

A small error can create problems for someone with a disability. If the slope isn't right, water can pool. Uneven surfaces or too steep a slope can create barriers to someone using a wheelchair.

"It's always been a high priority of mine," Tipton says. "If the slope isn't right and the sidewalk isn't accessible, we inadvertently force someone off the sidewalk and to enter into traffic. We're all conscientious when it comes to ADA standards and accessibility. It's very crucial that we do our best."

Here (below) is Tipton, checking out a crosswalk for the same South Castle Street project. She waited for the rain and observed water ponding.

Nope. Not good enough. She had the contractor crew do it over and fix the dip.

Tipton checks whether a crosswalk is level. It wasn't good enough, so she had the contractor crew redo it.

Tipton checks whether a crosswalk is level. It wasn't good enough, so she had the contractor crew redo it.

This is national Public Works Week, so it seemed like a good time to talk with Tipton and see what she does behind the scenes to help Knoxville function better.

So... Of the hundreds of projects she's had a hand in or managed, of which one is she most proud?

That would be the 100 and 200 blocks of Gay Street.

Over the years, Tipton has been involved in projects spanning the entire length of Gay Street - from the bridge spanning the Tennessee River to the northern end of the downtown artery, past Fifth Avenue.

But redoing the subterranean utilities and above-ground streetscape for the downtown blocks between Summit Hill Drive and Jackson Avenue "left a mark," she laughs.

"That was the most difficult and the most complex, because it had lots of different components," she says - everything from antiquated utilities to trolley tracks to soil contaminated by the pre-World War II fill material used to build up Gay Street to its current elevation.

Tipton's legacy will be her insistence on near-perfection - that, while keeping projects within appropriate budgetary parameters.

"The little details count," she says. "It's our job to be precise. That's what we do."

Posted by evreeland On 17 May, 2021 at 9:29 AM