Page 12 - July-Aug2020 Vol38 No2
P. 12
STATEWIDE by Lisa Hood Skinner
Pandemic Work: Pothole Patching
to Tennis Court Resurfacing
This spring, everyday life in Tennessee so that “we have been able to do some of Public Works, said fewer cars on the
altered its pace for the unprecedented sidewalk work during this time that is roads in the tourist town allowed his
COVID-19 pandemic. made easier by businesses being closed. crews to replace “asphalt with concrete at
Other than that, our field crews have been the intersection of Wears Valley and the
But in many municipal Public Works working normally, except for distancing Parkway. Pouring concrete and allowing
departments across the state, that pace policies, such as no more than two men in (it) to cure and test to 3500 psi would have
was still “pedal to the medal” to provide a truck, etc.” been impossible with typical traffic in
citizens with timely essential services. Pigeon Forge.”
Tennessee Public Works magazine “Our sanitation truck drivers have been
gathered informal comments from Public limiting the time they are in the building “With very low traffic volume due to
Works professionals statewide regarding and are staying completely away from the “Safer at Home” order we were able to
how their departments handled the ever- other employees. Since we have a limited complete the project. Concrete will not rut
changing situation. number of employees (who) can operate like asphalt and cut traffic loops. We had
Decreased Traffic Helped Lebanon’s Crews a sanitation truck, the city would be in a no complaints with long traffic backups,
bind if several of them got the virus,” he and complaints from businesses that were
Regina Santana, City of Lebanon said. closed,” he said.
Engineering Services Director, said Getting Ahead: Sevierville Downtown Germantown’s Soccer and Baseball
they were “full steam ahead with many Streetscape, Joint Traffic Signal Light Fields, Tennis Courts See Long-Needed
projects, but I don’t know that we’ve Project Improvements
necessarily done anything that we
wouldn’t have done otherwise. Everything Bryon Fortner, Sevierville Public Works Bo Mills, Germantown Public Works
has been much easier to accomplish due Director, said a couple of their current Director, said his crews were able to
to the decreased traffic on the roadways.” projects got ahead of schedule with “capitalize on the lack of play to core
Recycle Drive-Through at Signal Mountain businesses closed and streets less full of aerate, top dress and even place new sod
cars and tourists. on several of our soccer and baseball
Loretta Hopper, Public Works Director, fields. Our soccer fields in particular
Town of Signal Mountain, said her “Our downtown streetscape project hardly ever get any recovery time.”
department’s services were adjusted, has been able to do a little more with
amended and more flexible as different businesses closed, and our joint traffic “This period of no play has allowed us
pandemic phases were rolled out. For signal project with Pigeon Forge has been to get these fields in really good shape. We
example, she said Signal Mountain able to add a crew to work on the Parkway also used this “down time” to resurface
“continued our curb-side trash pick-up and other intersections they were saving several of our tennis courts without
and our backdoor trash service that we for lower traffic times,” he said. interrupting play,” he said.
provide to our elderly residents.
“We really haven’t had the chance to Germantown Public Works also
“After the first week of shut down, we take much advantage of the decreased capitalized on the lower traffic volumes
started picking up yard waste again. The traffic with our own forces. In an attempt to accomplish street repairs in two
next week we opened our transfer station to protect everyone from COVID-19, major intersections (Wolf River Blvd.
on a limited basis. We are using a follow we’ve split our crews in half, furloughed and Kimbrough / Germantown Road at
car for certain operations, keeping one half (with pay) while the others half Farmington Blvd). Mills said those “are
person per vehicle,” she said. worked, then flipped crews.” our two busiest intersections. We have
put off much needed work here trying
“Recycle was closed for about a month “This has been going on since April 6 to formulate traffic control plans to
due to the way our drop off center is set ... so we’ve only been doing the mission accommodate pedestrians and motorists,”
up. We reconfigured the facility to allow critical stuff like garbage/junk/brush he said.
residents to drive through rather than collection and mowing while keeping a
park and bring their materials inside. skeleton crew on standby for emergencies. He said with the COVID-19 “Safer
This allowed people to stay in their car at Home” directive, traffic volumes
until their turn to unload, and keep the “Certainly (has) been a weird time and reduced by two-thirds. “We were able to
recommended distancing.” I pray for normalcy, but I don’t think we’ll systematically make repairs during our
Cookeville Sidewalk Work: Step on a ever be back to the normal we once had,” regular working hours with very little
Crack… he said. disruption. Several in the community have
Lower Traffic Volume in Pigeon Forge recognized the quality of these repairs and
Greg Brown, P.E., City of Cookeville Brought Speedier Asphalt-to-Concrete were grateful for ‘smoothing out’ these
Public Works Director, said business Replacement rough intersections,” he said.
closures helped with sidewalk repair,
Mark Miller, Pigeon Forge Director
12 TPW July/August 2020
