Stimulus money helps complete W. Knox County road project

Stimulus money helps complete W. Knox County road project

By HARLOW SUMERFORD
6 News Reporter

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- Construction is well underway on Lovell road in West Knoxville.Starting at Gilbert Road, the plan is to turn the two lane road into five lanes.

But Knox County hit a speed bump when the cost was too expensive.

"Unfortunately, the project was going to be more than $10 million, so the logical thing for us to do was to shorten the project somewhat and say let us find a transition point and stop it there," says Knox County Director of Public Works Bruce Wuethrich.

"When we get additional funds, then we will come back and build it all," Wuethrich says.

When Knox County ran out of money, the widening project was going to stop just before  Pellissippi Parkway. However, stimulus money changed that plan.

$3.1 million in federal stimulus means the project will now extend under the parkway and up to Cedar Dale Road.

"This project was the first to come to mind because what they were looking for were shovel ready projects. Because this project had already been designed, all we were lacking was to go ahead and have it bid so this project was ideal," Wuethrich explains.

The decision to spend stimulus money was made by Knoxville's Transportation Planning Organization, the TPO. 

"A number of jobs will be created or at least maintained, let me put it that way, from asphalt or concrete to construction workers. So it will allow the construction industry to maintain some jobs instead of laying them off," says Director Jeff Welch.

On site, the crews see the opportunity as well. Extending the widening project could be a two year job.

"During the down turn, we had adequate staff. When work dried up, you jump on these projects to keep people employed," says Brent Wilson, of Pipeline Construction.

Since the money is coming in, you will find few complaints, but things are moving slower than normal.

Essentially one big project became two smaller projects and added a lot more paper work.

"You had to come up with a separate set of design plans, get it re-permitted as a separate project. So the paperwork and getting it ready for construction just had to take an extra four or five months," Welch says.

The current contractor, G.W. Wyatt, and others will bid on the remainder of the project.

According to the Public Works Department, G.W. Wyatt would expect to hire an additional 10 workers, if it's chosen to finish the job.

The Obama Administration has created a Web site to track how stimulus money is being spent in each state. It's www.recovery.org/

So far, $158 billion has been awarded. That's just over half of the entire stimulus package.

Tennessee has gotten $3.7 billion that has created just over 9,500 jobs.

On the Web site, you can click on Tennessee and see which agencies the money has gone to.   

However, the Web site has been criticized lately by the government accounting office (GAO), which  oversees the stimulus program.

The GAO says nearly one in every 10 jobs is tied to money that hasn't been spent yet.

But the White House says the inaccurate data accounts for less than one percent and it's errors in reporting that can be fixed.