Northshore homeowners pleased with planned upgrades
Bayou Bend HOA president Ed Mee and Jack Shafe, Montgomery Cove HOA president, along with Angela Russell, treasurer of Bayou Bend HOA, have been leading a group of about a dozen HOAs in asking for evaluation and potential solutions for Northshore Drive since early this year.
“Just since February, we started contacting area HOAs,” said Russell. “We have 12 on our distribution list and seven who have actively attended one of our two meetings. So we are trying to get a group together so we can coordinator our efforts, in order to reach and educate our elected officials about what is going on down here.”
They were initially spurred into action by the ongoing Pedestrian Safety project, which has been spearheaded by Knox County Commissioner at large Larsen Jay (11th District).
“Our fear has been they were going to spend money on a walking trail that goes right along side the road, and not focus on the road,” said Russell, describing Northshore as “narrow and in many places does not have even a shoulder.
“A walking trail is more of a recreational luxury, but the road itself is a necessity,” she added. “People’s lives should be the priority. People on a walking trail have a choice, if it’s dangerous or not dangerous, but we don’t have a choice. We only have one way to go to work, only one way to pick up food, only one way for medical attention and only one way for police officers to come and protect us if we need them to.”
“The safety issue is our main concern,” agreed Shafe, who said his HOA spends thousands of dollars a year in front entrance repairs due to car accidents.
Discussions about the issue with Knox County Commissioner John Schoonmaker (5th District) earlier this spring led to conversations with Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and Jim Snowden, Knox County’s senior director of engineering and public works.
“I met with Jacobs, and he was very enthusiastic about helping make this a priority,” said Schoonmaker, who also inspected specific areas of Northshore with Snowden to see what could be accomplished.
Recent state funding specifically earmarked for roadways will be utilized for the Northshore improvements, according to Mike Donila, senior director of communications for Knox County.
“We will be using approximately $1 million from the recent state aid one-time infusion of $8.2 million,” he said. “For context, we normally get $500,000 to $600,000 annually in state aid, so we are getting a very large increase.
“Our recent investigation of Northshore Drive showed the road carried an average of 15,000 cars per day and had a pavement width of 21 to 22 feet, with little or no shoulders. The result of these conditions is errored road sides with drop offs immediately adjacent to the white line.
“In addition, due to the lake, we have no redundancy or alternate route that can provide relief should a wreck occur.
“As such, we have been monitoring this location for some time, but as part of the recent priority’s week of Advance Knox the public overwhelmingly recognized this need also. Therefore, the Mayor and Commissioner Schoonmaker have asked EPW to make safety improvements to this segment.
“These improvements will include widening of the road by 4 to 5 feet, repaving, and restriping, to accommodate a minimum of 2 to 3 feet shoulder throughout the entire segment.”
Donila said the improvements will not impact funding of the pedestrian safety project.
“We have engaged the civil consultant responsible for the pedestrian improvements to incorporate these road improvements into the same plan,” he said. “By doing so, we can inconvenience folks only once and gain an economy of scale by bidding as one project.”
Snowden further elaborated on specifics.
“Commissioner Schoonmaker and my team met [recently] and strategized a good game plan,” said Snowden. “In summary, we will engage our on-call civil engineer to develop plans to widen Northshore in two segments: 1. Concord Road to Cove Park and 2. Cove Park to Choto Road.
“As part of this project, we will widen these two segments by a minimum of four feet, including a new pavement overlay to establish consistent width shoulders on both sides.
“By doing so, we will improve the safety and operational capacity of these segments.
“We hope to get this work started late this year or early next, with a four- to six-month timeframe for completion”
Russell, Shafe and Mee praised their interactions with Schoonmaker, but acknowledged they needed the support of the county commission as a whole to effect ongoing change.
“We want to thank John for carrying the ball on this,” Mee said. “But, we also want to get more HOAs to join us as we have other issues coming up that will impact this end of town.”
The group has plans to meet 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 28, in the Montgomery Cove Clubhouse.
For more information, contact Mee at 865-661-0092.
