Improving the flow
Town plans to prevent vehicle stacking at Campbell Station, Snyder intersection
Traffic lanes and signals at North Campbell Station Road and Snyder Road will be modified to improve traffic flow.
Though a construction schedule “has not been determined, as plans are not developed” according to a Town press release, “because the board has approved funding for construction in (fiscal year) 2019,” Town engineer Darryl Smith “thinks the project likely will go to construction in spring 2019, with completion around June 2019.”
The project is funded at $305,000, but Town administrator David Smoak said Town staff is estimating it might cost $265,000. Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted unanimously during its meeting Thursday, July 26, to approve a contract for up to $40,000 to hire Cannon & Cannon to provide engineering services.
“We added this project to the (Town’s Capital Improvements Plan) this year to help alleviate vehicular stacking for motorists who are traveling westbound on Snyder Road and turning southbound on Campbell Station Road,” Smoak said.
He reminded the Board that in 2012, Knox County extended Snyder Road to connect into Outlet Drive. “When they did that, it added an additional lane that made that a much more popular travel route for motorists to get around the I-40 corridor,” Smoak said. “What we’ve seen is that there is tremendous stacking in the peak hours of the afternoon that causes that to back up.
“This project would extend the southbound western lane on Campbell Station to the new Snyder Road intersection and modify the westbound through and right-turn lane on Snyder to a left-through and right turn lane,” he added.
“In the afternoon, it gets real bad,” Alderman Louise Povlin said.
“Yes, I’ve been there,” Alderman Bob Markli added. “It’s a real problem.”
“We’d like to see some development on Snyder Road and Outlet Drive,” Povlin said. “If we’re going to encourage that, (traffic flow) is one of the things (developers) are going to look at.”
Markli asked of there was any state or county funding that could be available.
Smoak answered the part of North Campbell Station being targeted is not a county road or state route.
“If we wanted to ask for that kind of money, that would have to go through a (Transportation Improvement Program) process, and that process is a couple years out,” he said. “So it’s really about timing.”
Pursuing the TIP process could delay the project by three to five years and would cost more money for the Town, Smoak warned.
“(The project) needs to be done,” Markli said. “We’ve got a real problem developing there.”
On another matter, the Board approved unanimously a contract between the Town and GEOServices to provide supplemental developmental oversight and inspection services associated with Overlook at Campbell Station apartments, 820 N. Campbell Station Road.
Mark Shipley, Community Development director, reminded the Board it passed a resolution Nov. 9, 2017, that provided applicants with projects costing more than $5 million to “request permission from the Town to allow third-party inspections and development oversight.
“This would not only help the Town staff lessen some of its burden, it also would help the applicants with their timeline and keep their project moving forward,” he added.
Since that time, Paul Folger, Overlook at Campbell Station developer, is seeking permission to use a third-party inspector.
Folger’s $30 million project involves 12 buildings with about 290,600 square feet. Following a request for qualifications, GEOServices, a local geotechnical engineering firm, was the only firm that submitted a proposal to provide inspection services, Shipley said.
While the firm will inspect building foundations, structural framing, insulation and firestopping, electrical inspections will be done by Lenoir City Utilities Board and the Town’s code officers will inspect mechanical and plumbing, as well as oversee all inspections.
Folger will be asked to pay $20,000 to the Town, which will, in turn, pay GEOServices.
