POWELL, Tenn. — Knox County Public Works has embarked on a years-long project to rework around 6.5 miles of Schaad Road.
The latest phase of the project was supposed to be finished on Dec. 22, 2023, but the Knox County Commission granted the builders, Charles Blalock and Sons, an extension to Sept. 30, 2024.
Those phases of the project should've extended from Schaad Road and Middlebrook Pike to the Glenlake Subdivision, near Amherst Elementary School. However, Knox County Senior Director of Public Works Jim Snowden said road construction over railroad tracks is delaying the project.
"That's really the critical path for the job that has really prohibited us from making some of the progress we'd like," Snowden said. "A lot of that is coordination with CSX railway."
Snowden said the railroad changes and other issues out of the construction company's control prompted the extension from the county.
The contract between Knox County and Charles Blalock and Sons said the construction company would owe $2,000 a day if it did not finish the project by the deadline, Snowden said.
The two-lane stretch of road extending from the areas near Powell and Karns sees up to 16,000 cars a day, according to Snowden.
Next, Snowden said the county will put out bids for the fourth phase of the Schaad Road project. That project will stretch from Oak Ridge Highway to Pleasant Ridge Road. It would expand Schaad Road in those locations from two lanes to four lanes, with a median and sidewalks.
"It'll kind of feel like Alcoa Highway a little bit," Snowden said. "It's just never-ending."
Right now, Snowden said, the county is finishing purchasing land to expand the portion of Schaad Road in those locations.
"This was the first thing I started on, and I just hope I work here long enough to see it finished," Snowden said.
He expects Phase 4 to take around two years to complete, once construction begins.