East Norris, Dogwood roadwork contract OK’d
A portion of East Norris Road, from Norris Square to Pine Road, and part of Dogwood Road in Norris will be repaved soon under a contract approved by the City Council last week.
The contract with Duracap Asphalt Paving Contractors of Knoxville includes $119,000 to grind off part of the current surface and add a new 1.5-inch asphalt overlay to East Norris Road.
It also includes repaving a section of Dogwood Road from Norris Square to 36 Dogwood Road, at a cost of $58,000, said City Manager Adam Ledford.
Ledford said the city already has money in the budget to cover those sections, but also plans to extend the repaving of East Norris Road from Pine Road to Cedar Place, near Andersonville Highway, when money is budgeted for that.
“The bid for that section was for an additional $227,000, which essentially would run from Pine Road to the sewer plant (near Andersonville Highway),” Ledford said.
Norris does not yet have money set aside in the budget to pay for that additional work, he said.
The city was hoping to get some help from the Anderson County Board of Education for repaving East Norris and part of Dogwood roads, based on the heavy use of those roads by school buses serving Norris Middle School.
But Ledford told the City Council during its June 9 meeting that the school system has declined to help with the costs.
Repaving work on East Norris Road won’t begin, however, until a sewer-rehabilitation project along the same route is completed, as it will tear up parts of the road, Ledford said.
The sewer work is to begin July 14.
It’s designed to help reduce excess runoff of stormwater into the city’s sewer system, which has caused the city to run afoul of state environmental regulators.
Since early 2022, Norris has been under a “director’s order” from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to clean up its discharge of sewage into Buffalo Creek, just south of the sewer plant, which is on the west side of East Norris Road just north of Andersonville Highway.
