City Administrator Amber Scott
said moving the utilities will
cost $390,510.
“It was a little bit of a
shocker for us here at the last
minute,” Scott said after the
meeting. “We were not made aware
that TDOT would not partially
fund the relocation of the
utilities. ... We were just not
aware of that, but I’m glad
we’ll be able to potentially
come together and help offset
that cost.”
Mayor Tony Aikens said TDOT told
city officials in the “11th
hour” that the department would
not pay for utility relocation
because it was not a
state-controlled project.
“We were told in the last minute
— I mean they’ve had these
plans, they sent them back, they
approved, they said that we’re
good to go and then at the last
minute, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re
not paying for this’,” Aikens
said. “... If they would have
been in control of it, and we
asked them to take it back over,
of course they said ‘no,’ and
they say that it’s — but they
never told us.”
The entire project will cost a
little more than $2.7 million,
with Charles Black & Sons Inc.,
handling construction. Work will
include placing turn lanes at
the intersection in front of
Lenoir City High School heading
each direction, widening the
road to 20 feet and forming
three lanes beside the school,
with two through lanes heading
toward Town Creek.
“It’s just something that needs
to be done, and they’re ready to
start digging,” Aikens said.
“It’s going to be a mess out
there for a while, but I think
all the people that live in that
area certainly are going to
appreciate it once it’s done.”
Eighteen parcels and 12 property
owners are impacted by the
project, which is financed with
a $3.2 million 80-20 grant. The
county and city will pay 10
percent each for the local
match.
“They approved our budget every
step,” Scott said. “In those
estimations, in that budget, the
dollars were shown there for the
utility relocation to pay the
contractor to relocate those
utilities and they never had any
problems about it before, but it
does put us in a bad position
because it is the rule and
that’s a situation we’re in
right now.”
Vice Mayor Eddie Simpson
reminded council the project has
been in the works for 10 years
and is based on 10-year-old cost
estimates.
“Nothing is the same cost as it
was 10 years ago and we have to
face the fact that things
increase and we have to be
prepared to build in today’s
time,” Simpson said. “Really I
guess when you take the effect
of inflation and all that, the
$400,000 is not bad, just shy of
$400,000, because I know our
engineering costs and all that
stuff’s just continued to rise.”