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Historic bricks to be paved over, for now

By Brad Hicks
Press Staff Writer
bhicks@johnsoncitypress.com

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It appears that the historic bricks along Main Street will be repaved, at least for now, but the concept of a pedestrian mall will be revisited at some point in the future.

Thursday, the Johnson City Commission approved a motion to repave the 16,200-square-foot section of Main Street from Spring Street to Buffalo Street where the bricks, approximately 100 years old, were uncovered about 2 1/2 weeks ago during a Tennessee Department of Transportation project being funded through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act monies. However, they intend to revisit the bricks at some point in the future.

Johnson City Public Works Director Phil Pindzola told commissioners that repaving of the bricks would not be permanent and whenever the city decides to revisit the concept of a pedestrian mall, the asphalt could be removed at a cost of around $20,000.

“I’m convinced we could get it back to looking just like that if we paved it today,” he said while showing commissioners a picture of the brick pathway.

The commission needed to act quickly on the matter, as Pindzola said city officials were being pushed by TDOT for a decision as to how to proceed with the repaving project. Since the Main Street resurfacing is being funded through the ARRA, funds are already in place for its completion.

Part of the project in which the bricks turned up included milling of the streets before being re-asphalted, and Pindzola said the TDOT contract was actually changed to uncover more of the brick along this section of Main Street. Typically, he said crews mill about one-and-three-fourths inches, but here they actually milled about four inches.

The historic brick does not meet standards for use as a state route because of their slickness, Pindzola said. However, he presented the commission with a number of options that included replacing the brick and having a pedestrian walkway with access to traffic during the day and closure at night or preserving the historic brick and leaving the street closed to vehicle traffic. Pindzola said the rerouting of the state route would be very feasible. However, total replacement of the historic brick with new brick would cost around $1 million, while preservation would be in the range of $100,000.

Pindzola said the closure has led to people being able to come and walk the streets and get an idea of what a pedestrian mall could be like, serving as something of a conversation starter. He said response from most is that it would be good for the downtown area, Johnson City as a whole, and the region.

“What we have talked about in the task force, the Downtown Task Force, all along we have talked about the creation of unique spaces as something that draws people to the downtown area. So this kind of fits into that concept of unique space, something different, and it does that,” he said.

Several downtown business owners and residents also spoke in favor of the pedestrian walkway at Thursday’s meeting.

“I truly believe that this has been uncovered for a reason,” downtown resident Logan McCabe said. “I think this uncovering is more than just a physical uncovering. I think that it has opened the eyes of myself and a lot of people who live downtown, but also live outside of downtown. ... I can’t imagine us ignoring what has been put in our face right now.”

Those who have voiced opposition to the street closure are concerned costs involved, inadequate parking, limited access for customers and adverse effects on downtown businesses.

For now, the downtown bricks will be covered up once again. However the commission has vowed that they will be revisited in the future.

“A million-dollar investment, I think, needs to be thought about a while,” Commissioner Phil Carriger said.