State Street Garage Update- October 11, 2013

 MEDIA ADVISORY

What: Ribbon-cutting ceremony for newly expanded State Street Garage

When: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15^th

            Where: The Gay Street end of the pedestrian bridge, in the walkway next to the Regal Riviera, 510 S. Gay St.

Who: Mayor Madeline Rogero and City officials will celebrate the opening of the $6.1 million State Street Garage expansion. The project includes a new walkway with a glass roof over State Street to the landing area outside of Regal Cinema and a new elevator. The expansion also includes a new deck that adds 240 new parking spaces.

The old sign has been refurbished.

  .

Threaded is the name of the sculpture by Isaac Duncan from Chattanooga.

Please join us at this event if you can.
Thanks for your interest in the State Street Garage expansion and in Downtown Knoxville.

State Street Garage Update- August 29, 2013

By this weekend all of the decks of the State Street Garage should be open for use including the new top deck. Painting and signage has been virtually completed. All of the elevators are now back in working order including the elevator on the west side of State Street. The overpass has been functional for some time.

Work is ongoing along State Street and also Central Avenue for sidewalk construction and repair. This may necessitate continued lane closures for a short while.

The new parking spaces being created on the bottom two levels have been delayed pending design upgrade and probably won't be available until later this fall at this point.

Landscaping will follow this last bit of work and the folks at Dogwood Arts have arranged for a sculpture to be placed on the site of the old elevator core which is in the process of demolition. This area will be added to their mix for annual sculpture exhibits.

Following are some recent pictures of the garage. The last several pictures were taken by friends at McCarty Holsaple McCarty.

Expect large crowds Downtown this weekend with the home opener for UT Football and also for Boomsday on Sunday. Please have patience and remain mindful of some of the road closures in the area for these events. Information related to parking and to road closures can be found on the City of Knoxville website at www.cityofknoxville.org  and at the CBID website at www.downtownknoxville.org.

Thanks for your interest in this project and in Downtown Knoxville.

State Street Garage Update- August 9, 2013

The glass roof panels are almost all in place on the overpass from the State Street garage to the landing area outside of Regal Cinema. The weather continues to cause construction delays however in much of the remaining work. Below are a few pictures of the new roof:

The new elevator core construction is almost finished as well. Paint is being applied for each of the levels and new signage is being installed.

Storm drains continue to be constructed and sidewalks rebuilt.. This has become more complicated than originally thought and we have had some delays here. The next pictures are along Clinch Avenue.

 Storm drain work and also sidewalk repair is ongoing along S. Central Street

Plans are still being finalized for secured parking on the lower two levels. This new parking area will probably not be available until later in October. The restroom here is being reconstructed and the existing elevator is being upgraded. Plumbing, electric, and HVAC details are still being decided. Below are a few pictures of the secured parking levels and the core/restroom area:

The new sidewalk construction is in process along State Street. The picture below is of the area that will also include the new screened garbage collection area.

And, as if there is not enough construction already in the area, the Tennessee Theater is getting a long delayed new roof which has necessitated the closure of Clinch Avenue from State Street to S. Gay Street for the next few months.

The original approximately 850 spaces in the garage should mostly be available next week and the new level is on track to open in the first few weeks of September. Some drainage, painting, and signage work is about all that is left to be accomplished here.At some point soon we hope to reopen the garage to transient parkers on the same schedule as we had before construction. For now, though, the garage opens to transient parkers beginning at 2:00 pm. Of course the garage is open to monthly parkers at all times.

Thanks all of you for your patience and understanding in working through this project.

As always thanks for your interest in Downtown Knoxville.

State Street Garage Update- July 16, 2013

Sorry for the delay in reporting progress on the State Street Garage Expansion. The heavy lifting of precast concrete has been completed and almost all lanes of all of the surrounding streets are open. A majority of the garage itself is open to parking. 

Frankly there has not been a lot to report. Some of  the work remaining to be completed includes the new elevator core, the storm system, old elevator core demolition, and new glass roof on the overpass.

Plans are to begin work on the glass roof over the overpass to S. Gay Street this week and that work will require some closures of the overpass and possibly some lane closures on State Street for limited times over the next few weeks. Since we are continuing to work in that area, the elevator on the west side of State Street will remain closed and the temporary stairwell will be a point of access. The existing elevator in the State Street Garage will remain working until the end of the project and that elevator can talk folks up to the overpass level.

The weather has finally had an effect on our timeline as has other unforeseen issues which are not unusual when dealing with a project like this. Issues with utilities and older streets surrounding this project always were a cause for concern and it is all but impossible to plan and design for those instances.

Sometime in early August the goal is to reopen the existing older top level so the garage will be completely reopened as it was before construction. The opening of the new top level will then be in early September. The two lower levels of parking that we recently added will hopefully be open by later in September.

Below are a few pictures of the project taken in the last few weeks.

Thanks for your continued interest in Downtown Knoxville and in the State Street Garage Expansion project. I hope to see you Downtown very soon.

State Street Garage Update- May 29, 2013

Good progress continues to be made on  the State Street Garage expansion. By later this week, the garage will be reopened to all parkers after 2:00 PM everyday. Only monthly parkers will be allowed in the morning for about six more weeks. It is hoped that the overpass will once again be available by the end of the week. It had been opened previously, but lighting at night became an issue so temporary lighting will be installed to remedy that situation. Unfortunately the existing elevator will remain out of service while we complete some work in that area.
Some stormwater work is ongoing on S. Central Street and also on Clinch Avenue. The new elevator and core is currently being installed. The old elevator core will be demolished and a nice area for plantings and public art will be created.
As some folks know, the lower two levels of the Garage have been used by the City of Knoxville as a warehouse for surplus and storage and also by KPD for some of their needs. Because of all of our demands for parking Downtown, I am happy to report that we are now planning to make these two levels available for parking as well. We have had many requests by residents over the years to have some secured parking in this garage and to also make available some areas for storage so this new plan should accommodate those needs. Approximately 90 new secured parking spaces will be made available with about 24 of those having a storage unit component. We are still working out the details as to pricing, etc. as City Council appropriated some extra funding last night for this addition. I will post here about the details for reserving these spaces in the near future.
Other benefits will include making the existing elevator on the east end of the structure available to the public so folks will be able to walk across the new overpass and take the two elevators all the way to S. Central Street. We plan to refurbish the existing bathroom there and make it available to the public as well. We hope to accomplish this work on the same schedule as the rest of the garage. The final completion date for all phases of the garage is currently scheduled for August 1, 2013.
After spending so much time in that area the last six months we have also realized how much potential we have along that part S. Central Street between James White Parkway and the sidewalk. The City already maintains that area and the thought is to remove the chain link fence there and replace it with a much nicer fence and move the fence back to capture as much green space along the sidewalk as possible. Plans are to also create some sort of pocket park in that area. This would provide another very nice connection to the Old City and would also showcase this area to drivers in a much better way. We plan to meet with TDOT very soon to hopefully gain their approval of these ideas. They have always been very good to work with so we are very optimistic about getting this plan approved.
 We are also exploring ideas on ways to connect this new linear park area to the waterfront although this will obviously be very challenging given the road network there.

Thanks for your interest in this project and in Downtown Knoxville.

State Street Garage Update- May 17, 2013

The State Street Garage expansion is continuing as was described in the last post. The overpass from the garage to the former escalator landing and then on to S. Gay Street will open on Friday, May 18, 2013. The parking level at the overpass level is still closed for parking however, so either the elevator or the stairway can be used to access this point.
The New Sentinel article in today's paper written by Jim Balloch accurately reflects our schedule and I have included a link here for more detail:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/may/15/official-state-street-garage-work-on-schedule/

The following is a series of pictures taken the last two weeks. Several are from the new deck level.

       

The following pictures where all taken from the new deck:

The next picture is looking out from the new overpass to S. Gay Street.

Work on the new stormwater system is still ongoing. The picture below is of the work completed on Clinch Avenue.

This is a picture of the clearing being done along S. Central Street in anticipation of the new storm system there.

Thanks for your interest in this project and in Downtown Knoxville.

Don't forget the Biscuit Festival this weekend.