Farragut's Union Road Rebuild Waits on TDOT Go-Ahead as Aldermen Weigh Drainage Concerns

Farragut, Tennessee's long-planned Union Road improvement project is close to construction. The Town is waiting on a notice to proceed from the Tennessee Department of Transportation, and Mayor Alex Cain told the Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Thursday, Oct. 22, that the project will go ahead while the Town works through a handful of resident concerns, the Farragut Press reported.

"We're going to move forward with it," Cain said. "Hopefully, these will be very minor changes."

What gets built

The project rebuilds Union Road from North Hobbs Road to Everett Road, plus North Hobbs Road from Kingston Pike up to Union Road. Plans described to the board when right-of-way work began call for about 4,200 linear feet of realigned roadway with 11-foot lanes, curb and gutter, and a 10-foot-wide multi-use path for people on foot and on bikes, according to an earlier Farragut Press report.

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The project carries federal money, with an 80-20 federal/local split, so it runs through TDOT's local programs office. That is why the state's notice to proceed is the last step before work can start.

Questions from the vice mayor

Vice Mayor Greg Wiberley told the board he has been fielding calls from residents along the road. He questioned whether the drainage plan in the engineering package shows how runoff will move across neighbors' yards. He also pointed to a culvert under the road where flooding affects at least four homeowners, and said he could not see where it ties into the planned culverts.

He also cited a driveway that now has a 7% slope and would go to 15% after the work. One resident hired an engineer to review the project and is still waiting on the Town's response, Wiberley said.

None of the residents he spoke with oppose the project, he said. "Everyone knows how dangerous and awful it is," Wiberley said. "We're just trying to polish it so that we don't have an unintended consequence during and after construction."

Neighbors push to keep it on schedule

Jim Bolon, president of the Fox Run homeowners association, asked the board not to send the design back to the drawing board. "The Union Road improvement project has been 13 years in the making," Bolon said. He said the work would serve "approximately 900 homes" in Fox Run, Saddle Ridge, Ivy Farms, Coal Springs, Sedgefield and along Union Road.

The project has slipped before. Early last year, the Town learned it needed a new federal environmental review because so much time had passed since the original approval, which pushed the expected start back, the Farragut Press noted in its year-end review.

What's next

The Town is waiting on TDOT. Officials did not give a start date at the Oct. 22 meeting.

Sources

• Union Road improvements draw concerns, Farragut Press
• Getting ball rolling with Union Road upgrade: BOMA, Farragut Press
• Year in Review, Farragut Press