Getting ball rolling with Union Road upgrade: BOMA
Concerning the Union Road improvement project, Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously approved a professional services agreement with Vaughn & Melton Consulting Engineers Inc. during its meeting Thursday, May 12.
The Board contracted with Vaughn & Melton to help with acquisitions for right-of-way easements for the project for an amount not to exceed $214,000.
Town engineer Darryl Smith Smith said the overall project involves reconstruction of Union Road from North Hobbs Road to Everett Road and North Hobbs Road from Kingston Pike to Union Road. Those improvements include: realignment of the roadway (about 4,200 linear feet, “less the new roundabout in front of Ivey Farms development), with 11-foot lanes, curb and gutter and a 10-foot-wide multi-use path for pedestrians and bicyclists, he said.
“As you all know, the project has federal funding in it,” said Smith, noting the federal money is provided through a mix of Local/Surface Transportation Block Grants and Highway Infrastructure Program funds with an 80-20 federal/local split.
“It requires we follow all the guidelines through the local office of (Tennessee Department of Transportation),” he added.
“We’ve received a notice to proceed with driveway and right-of-way easement acquisitions in February.”
Since then, the Town advertised a Request for Qualifications to engineers and selected Vaughn & Melton.
“There are 21 tracts remaining to be acquired on the project,” Smith said. “Vaughn & Melton will perform negotiations and coordinate with additional services among three subconsultants – appraisals by Pipkin & Associates, appraisal review by Integra Realty Resources and title closings by Tennessee Valley Title.
“The Town has contracted with all these firms in the past and found their work to be excellent,” he added.
In other business, the Board ...
• unanimously adopted a Parks & Recreation 10-year Master plan for 2022 through 2032.
“We have been working on this for over a year,” Parks & Recreation director Sue Stuhl said. “We’ve had lots and lots of public support and public involvement, including focus groups, insider surveys, intercept surveys, citizen surveys, public hearings and, last week, we had draft plan hearing and (the meeting) tonight.
One citizen’s request was for an indoor pool and possibly a skate park in the future.
“The indoor pool was on the list for a future study,” Stuhl said. “The skate park did not come up as high priority.”
She said the plan has the necessary elements and an action plan with projects for near term, mid term and long term “with about three years for each of those.”
• The Board heard from resident Steven Valentine, who asked for traffic-calming measures on Old Stage Road. He referred to islands on Grigsby Chapel Road as an example.
