Sawmill Road contract could be let Friday
Sawmill Road in Norris, which begins here at Orchard Road and now ends at the Norris industrial park, will be extended through the woods to connect with Norris Freeway (U.S. 441) behind Covenant Life Church. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
“There was still a question about a right-of-way issue that might have delayed it until May, but on Friday TDOT said it had been resolved,” Whited said.
He had told the Norris City Council of the possible delay during the regular council meeting on Monday, March 9.
This long-awaited project, which has been under development since about 2015, will extend Sawmill Road from an industrial park in Norris to a connection with Norris Freeway (U.S. 441) behind Covenant Life Church and Cross Pike Road.
No information was available yet as to when construction might begin or when the extension might be completed and opened to traffic.
The extension was nearly abandoned by the city in 2022, but since then right of way acquisition has been underway from Sawmill Road’s current terminus near Orchard Road.
In July 2022, the City Council gave the project new life by voting to spend an additional $213,000 in city funds to help pay for right-of-way acquisition.
On June 20, 2022, residents and council members agreed during a public meeting on the issue that the city should go ahead with the project, and the council made good on that decision during its July 2022 regular meeting.
Norris Mayor Chris Mitchell said during that public meeting that the city would still be on the hook to pay the state at least $167,000 for engineering work already completed on the extension plan even if the council chose to abandon the project.
Mitchell said at that time that continuing with the extension plan would cost the city only about $40,000 extra.
The city paid $35,000 of TDOT’s estimated cost of $125,000 for right-of-way acquisition in 2019, which should have been all Norris would have had to pay for the extension.
Originally, Anderson County paid a matching amount to cover the $70,000 the state wanted in local funds to buy the property; TDOT was then expected to pay all of the engineering and construction costs of the extension.
But when the state began right of way acquisition in 2022, TDOT determined that the price for all of the required property had ballooned since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020.
Residents on Pine Road have pushed for the extension because it would allow trucks from the city’s industrial park area to exit the city directly onto Norris Freeway. Now, those trucks must drive through the residential neighborhood on streets designed for 1936 traffic flows and vehicle sizes, city officials have said.
Property values along the proposed route have increased recently because of overall inflation and because some of the property owners have made improvements to their property, which raised their values even more.
