KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Papermill Drive is one spot in Knoxville that's notorious for flooding. The problem dates back years, but city leaders said they're looking into a solution.
Residents and business owners said the long history of flooding and drainage problems is a big disruption.
“Especially during flash flooding,” said Ed Bolden-Greer, the president and CEO of Arbor College School of Massage. “In our back parking lot, we'll get 3 - 6 inches of water. It leaves mud all over everything. Traffic goes to a stop.”
On Tuesday, a flash flood caused standing water to gather at the intersection of Papermill Drive and Westfield Road in front of Alchemy Salon.
“It came up the highest that I've ever seen it come up,” said Aisla Riley, the salon’s director. “The whole road was underwater and it was just kind of racing down. We saw a tree branch float past. It was pretty crazy.”
Just down the road from the salon, Bolden-Greer said he and his team have spent much of the day cleaning up.
“It leaves a horrendous mess,” he said. “We've spent the entire day cleaning up mud from people tracking in and out. We have, you know, have to worry about falls and all that stuff because it gets really slippery and stuff.”
This flooding is a trend that dates back years. In 2012, Aubrey's Restaurant off Papermill saw cars stuck in the parking lot. On Tuesday this year, it wasn't much different, although the city has taken some measures to address drainage in the area
“The better we do it, the less people know how good of a job we're doing,” said Chris Howley, Knoxville’s Deputy Engineer Director.
Howley worked on a stream remediation project at Kingston Pike and Papermill Drive in 2020. The city says this was a "$800,000-plus private-public collaboration that has daylighted a tributary of Fourth Creek."
Papermill isn't the only area in town with a history of flooding that the city has focused on.
Robert Bullock owns The Lunch House off Prosser Road, which is one of the four sites the city identified for flood control projects starting in 2013.
Since Knoxville invested in major stormwater infrastructure upgrades on those streets in 2013, the city said flooding in that area has only happened one time since. On Prosser Road specifically, the $1.4 million project reconstructed around 1,600 linear feet of the road between Knoxville Zoo Drive and Magnolia Avenue. It was finished in 2014.
Before that project's completion, Bullock said the area saw heavy flooding.
“It was a lake. That was like a lake down there,” Bullock said. “You could turn down there and it’d look like a lake sometimes. It'd be just completely covered, you wouldn't see nothing.”
Bullock said the construction was effective.
“I would say it is a lot better because you used to, you could get just a light rain and it started a little bit and you really couldn't sometimes get cars through,” Bullock said. “It used to be real bad, but like yesterday, it got a little bad, but for the most part, it's better than it used to be.”
Howley said this feedback is common.
“Just as an indicator, after a major rain event that we would have had, let's say in 1998, the next day, it wouldn't be uncommon to get 300, or 400 phone calls about the problems throughout the city,” Howler said. “And sometimes, now, we'll only have five or ten or sometimes none and, again, that’s just to show that we have made notable progress year in and year out to be able to achieve a manageable amount of flooding.”
But, Papermill Drive is still a problem.
“We are not done,” Howley said. “The mission is not accomplished. We have a programmatic goal to be able to get to a point where these things are not as common and less impactful and the durations are less in general.”
Knoxville leaders said part of that plan was developed based on a 2022 corridor study to address flooding on the road.
The city says the project will cost more than $15 million. While the city said the project is a priority, because of the high cost — which Knoxville does not currently have — the project will not be moving forward in the near future.