Blog: City Blog

New Public Works Complex to Improve City Services

The City's Public Works Complex is currently under construction.

If you’ve driven westbound on Interstate 40 lately, you might be wondering what that pink-colored building is on your right just as you leave downtown. Well, that’s the City’s soon-to-be-completed Public Works service center. And no, the building won’t be pink for long. That’s just the waterproofing and insulation!

Designs of the future public meeting space.

The future public meeting space on the ground floor of the Public Works Complex.

The future public meeting space is currently under construction.

The public meeting space in its current state under construction.

Public Works leaders discuss plans for the new Public Works Complex.

Left to right: Chad Weth, Public Service Director; Tom Clabo, Civil Engineering Chief; Jim Hagerman, City Engineering Director; and David Brace, Public Works Senior Director discuss the building plans on the basement floor of the new City Public Works Complex.

When completed, the Public Works service center will consolidate Engineering and Public Service operations and the Employee Health Center under one roof. The new building will also be a convenient, centralized location where customers can meet with City staff or gather for public meetings.

Recently, Public Works employees were able to tour the construction site and check out the progress.

Contractor Blaine Construction broke ground for the building in February 2015. The project should be complete by the end of August 2016.

The three-story building is being built based on LEED principles that include such items as a geothermal system that experts are estimating will improve energy efficiency by 30 percent and save money in heating and cooling costs.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation awarded the City’s Office of Sustainability a $250,000 grant in 2015 to help pay for the geothermal system, which will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The project is the first phase of modernizing the City’s Public Works facilities and consolidating resources at a single location. The goal is to control facility management costs and improve the production through more efficient operations. Public Works operations include brush and leaf collection, parks and greenway programming and maintenance, pothole patching, traffic signals and signs, street paving, sidewalk construction and many more services.

Future green roof on the top floor of the Public Works Complex.

The upper level of the Public Works Complex will boast a green roof plaza.

“The construction of the new Public Works service center is a major component in modernizing the City’s Public Works resources,” said David Brace, Senior Director for Public Works. “As demands for services increase, we have to meet that challenge without adding additional costs to the City’s operating budget. Providing more and better services through improved technology, equipment and efficient operations is absolutely critical.”

Posted by On 30 March, 2016 at 5:23 PM