Blythe Bailey leaned forward in his chair and pointed to a photo on a screen in his office that showed cracked and sunken pavement on Boy Scout Road.
Then the Chattanooga transportation director explained the difference between repaving a road and rebuilding one.
"If you repaved this, in a year or two, it's going to look like that again because it's just going to sink," he said. "But this is a tremendous opportunity to do a project that is long-awaited that will have a long-term impact."
Boy Scout Road will be the first road rebuilt - not just repaved - as part of the city's new road rehabilitation initiative.
It will be the only road to undergo the overhaul this year. The traffic department has not decided the order in which other roads will be rebuilt as part of the initiative, although targets have been identified.
A 2015 community survey released by city auditor Stan Sewell last month shows that the public's opinion of local road smoothness has worsened over the last five years. Forty-five percent of drivers surveyed this year found the smoothness of city roads "bad" or "very bad," while 35 percent found them "good" or "very good."
The city ranks roads with a score of 0-100 based on their condition, but several variables will factor into the decisions on which roads to rebuild, Bailey said. If the city road with the lowest score is not heavily used, it may be passed up in favor of a busier street that is more driveable but still in bad shape.
"We have a list of preliminary candidates," he said. "But the thing about repaving or repairing roads is that different locations have different impacts from weather, from water flow, traffic, various things, and it would be irresponsible to say in advance what streets we're looking at."
Boy Scout Road will be completed first, though, because of a combination of its poor condition, level of use and the number of resident inquiries about it.
Significant repairs, including the construction of a new base, will begin Monday on the 0.65-mile stretch of the road between Highway 153 and the railroad tracks, which is where the road exits city limits. The stretch will be closed for two weeks, sending drivers north to Thrasher Pike or south to Hixson Pike if they need to travel between Highway 153 and Middle Valley Road.
The city is using excess money from its 2015 paving contract to fund the Boy Scout Road project. Officials do not know exactly how much extra money they'll have from the paving contract, but the project is estimated to cost between $200,000 and $250,000.
Future projects in the road rehabilitation initiative will be built into the city budget.
"The rebuild program is not getting any smaller," Bailey said. "As time passes, more projects dip over the edge and will need to be rebuilt."
The Tennessee Department of Transportation completed a repaving project in September on Highway 153 between Grubb Road and U.S. Highway 27 that included the Boy Scout Road intersection. Crews primarily worked in the middle of the night on that project.
Drivers who travel through the area are more likely to be affected by the Boy Scout Road project, since the road will be closed.
"I think people who drive that road will be understanding, realizing the benefits of this," said City Councilman Chip Henderson, whose District 1 includes the area. "It's one of the roads that I've received the most calls on. I think having this repaired in such a way that it'll be maintained for years to come, I think they'll find it's worth the temporary inconvenience."
Contact staff writer David W. Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.