SR 95 Open Meeting and proposed changes to the original design

orenv

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Jun 30, 2009, 9:21:20 PM6/30/09

to Sustain Oak Ridge

Hot off the wires....

Citizens are invited to take advantage of an open walk-in review
session on the subject SR 95 improvement project. Review sessions will
be held on Wednesday, July 1, and Thursday, July 2, 2009, from 10:00
a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room at the City's Central Services
Complex at 100 Woodbury Lane in Oak Ridge. There will be no formal
presentation of the project design; however, the City Engineer will be
available to explain the project's original design and the proposed
changes recently requested by the City. The construction of this
project is proposed for bid letting in the Fall of 2009.

Lets try and get a summary on here of what goes down in the meeting.

Rob

Elijah

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Jul 11, 2009, 11:31:02 AM7/11/09

to Sustain Oak Ridge

Robert J. Gunter

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Jul 14, 2009, 12:53:37 PM7/14/09

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Thanks Elijah,

If anyone else has a summary that would be good.

Orenv

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05:56:00

Ellen Smith <smithellen@comcast.net>

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Jul 14, 2009, 3:49:31 PM7/14/09

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Yesterday the City Council unanimously endorsed a course of action under which (1) the highway will be essentially 4 lanes plus a paved median or turn lane from the gatehouse west to the western edge of the Southwood subdivision and (2) impact on the adjacent subdivision will be further reduced by the use of guardrail, reduced speed limit, perimeter ditches, and additional tree plantings. These measures increase the physical separation between road and neighborhood, retain some trees between road and neighborhood, and will not substantially delay initiation or completion of the project.

However, I was unable to get the excessive width of the project reduced for the remainder of its length. TDOT says that changing the design for other segments could not be done without delaying the start of the project beyond the current FY (and possibly indefinitely).

Ellen Smith

Elijah

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Jul 16, 2009, 1:46:19 PM7/16/09

to Sustain Oak Ridge

What I really don't get about the whole thing is why no one is making
any mention of the trees on the DOE side! Are those trees disposable?
Non-existent? I'm quite positive that they are there, so why are they
not they being mentioned?! I believe that they should be protected, in
addition to the trees on the residential side of the Turnpike.

Elijah

>On Jul 14, 3:49 pm, "Ellen Smith <smithel...@comcast.net>" <smithel...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Yesterday the City Council unanimously endorsed a course of action under which (1) the highway will be essentially 4 lanes plus a paved median or turn lane from the gatehouse west to the western edge of the Southwood subdivision and (2) impact on the adjacent subdivision will be further reduced by the use of guardrail, reduced speed limit, perimeter ditches, and additional tree plantings. These measures increase the physical separation between road and neighborhood, retain some trees between road and neighborhood, and will not substantially delay initiation or completion of the project.
>
> However, I was unable to get the excessive width of the project reduced for the remainder of its length. TDOT says that changing the design for other segments could not be done without delaying the start of the project beyond the current FY (and possibly indefinitely).
>
> Ellen Smith
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert J. Gunter" <rjgun...@chpconsultants.com>
> To: sustain-...@googlegroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 12:53:37 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: RE: SR 95 Open Meeting and proposed changes to the original design
>
> Thanks Elijah,
>
> If anyone else has a summary that would be good.
>
> Orenv
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sustain-...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:sustain-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Elijah
> Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 11:31 AM
> To: Sustain Oak Ridge
> Subject: Re: SR 95 Open Meeting and proposed changes to the original design
>
> The SR 95 review session was very informative. I found it a little bit
> confusing, though. If you missed it and want to see the pictures I
> took, help yourself:
>

Ellen Smith

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Jul 16, 2009, 8:47:37 PM7/16/09

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Interesting, isn't it? My initial complaints about this road (9 years
ago and more recently) focused on things like trees, floodplain,
riparian vegetation, stream aquatic habitat, and water quality, but
there was no progress with TDOT until the issue became irate homeowners.
That's a lesson to remember for the future.

Trees will be saved in the vicinity of the Southwood subdivision due to
the roadway changes that have been made. The tree-saving changes in the
design result not from shifting the roadway to the north, but from
reducing the roadway's overall width and creating a steeper embankment
on the south side of the roadway.

Many trees will be lost unnecessarily, however, to the two miles of road
construction west of the Southwood subdivision, where the project will
cut an unduly wide swath through forest and floodplain. You win some and
you lose some...

Ellen Smith

Elijah Fetzer

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Jul 17, 2009, 2:07:49 PM7/17/09

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grrrrrrr...

--
E l i j a h

"A psychiatrist asks a lot of expensive questions your wife asks for nothing."-Joey Adams

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