Main Street Rebuild Project Community Meeting
The City of Kingsport will hold a public information meeting next week about the upcoming Main Street Rebuild project. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on June 28 at city hall (415 Broad Street) in Room 307 (BMA Board Room).
The purpose of the meeting is to provide information about and an estimated timeline for the rebuilding of Main Street. City staff and representatives from the construction company and engineering firm will be on hand during the one-hour session to answer any questions about the project.
Conceptual drawings and maps of the project will be on display and informational material will be handed out. If you are interested in this project or will be impacted by the work, the city encourages you to attend.
“We understand this is a major project that will impact residents, business owners and others who work downtown for the next two years,” said Public Works Director Michael Thompson. “Therefore, we want to be as transparent as we can about the project and provide folks with as much information as possible.”
The Main Street Rebuild project is scheduled to begin later this summer and aims to improve and beautify one of the main gateways into downtown Kingsport.
Over the past century, the soils underneath Main Street have weakened and any new asphalt placed on the road simply fails within a few years. As a result, Kingsport has been committed to address this problem by completely rebuilding the road.
According to the plans, the contractor will dig down, remove the existing road structure and back fill it with stone to produce a good, stable base. The project also calls for placing telephone and cable lines underground, relocating power lines to the opposite side of the road and enhancing the roadway with landscaping, bulb outs, and stamped brick crosswalks.
The $20 million project will take approximately two years to complete with state and federal funding covering 80% of the work.
“As we move towards construction, we’ll be working specifically with the business owners and residents along Main Street to ease the burden of the project and communicate often with them,” Thompson said. “We want to fix the structural issues, make it better and more vibrant.”
To be in the know about the Main Street Rebuild project, check out www.kingsporttn.gov/mainstreet.