Cleveland Utilities nears end of signal project on 25th Street between Interstate 75, APD 40

photo Bart Borden, electric division manager for Cleveland Utilities
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CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Cleveland Utilities is moving toward the end of a project intended to improve traffic flow along the 25th Street corridor between Interstate 75 and APD 40.

In a recent utility board meeting, Electric Division Vice President Bart Borden said that there appears to be improvements in timing and that minor adjustments are underway.

Those changes included providing a slightly longer left turn cycle onto Peerless Road for eastbound traffic, creating a revised afternoon school plan for Ocoee Street, and separating Friday from the weekday schedule.

Although traffic signal timing schedules are computer-generated, the utilities' traffic coordinators implemented the changes in the field, Borden said.

"We put eyes on it to make sure that there aren't issues," he said.

Traffic timing data has been compiled and will be presented at the next utility board meeting in early December, Borden said.

In other business, Borden said that the number of traffic signals that Cleveland Utilities supervises continues to increase, driven by development in northern and southeastern Cleveland and Bradley County.

In northern Bradley County, traffic signals have been proposed for Lauderdale Highway at the Wacker plant entrance and the intersection with North Lee Highway, he said. On APD 40 to the southeast, signals are planned at the intersection with King Street -- where a Bowater Employee Credit Union branch will be built -- and the northeast exit ramp at 20th Street.

Commercial development also has played a role in water pressure concerns for areas near Dalton Pike and APD 40, said Craig Mullinax, vice president of the water division.

The water division recently completed a "unique" project to install pressure-reduction and check valves at key points in the mains served by water tanks at Johnson Boulevard and Bryant Drive, he said.

The equipment ensured adequate but not overwhelming water pressure for local residences when Cleveland Utilities recently increased pressure for a fire hydrant line for the Bi-Lo complex at Dalton Pike, Mullinax said.

Water pressure needed to be increased to provide enough pressure for whenever the hydrant lines at the complex were tested or employed, he said. Previously, residential water pressure would drop significantly when that happened, Mullinax said.

Installing check valves was chosen over the difficult and costly alternative of raising the height of the Johnson Boulevard water tank, he said.

As of late Friday, Cleveland Utilities had not received any calls from residences affected when the transition occurred, so it seems to have been implemented successfully, he said.

Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.

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