The Metro Public Works Department is targeting a year-end start date for its Division Street Extension project slated for SoBro.

The project's construction start will not happen as the city originally hoped, as Public Works previously planned finalizing surveying and acquisition efforts by 2013's end and starting full-scale construction by October 2014.

Jenna Smith, Public Works spokeswoman, said a summer 2016 completion is now slated for what will function as a complete street (that is, a street for which non-motorists and greenery are of equal importance with vehicles).

A construction bid should be released in late spring or summer with construction to begin once a general contractor is in place, Smith said. The project is expected to cost a minimum of $20 million. Tentatively, about half that budget is for right-of-way acquisition, Smith said.

To date, Metro has acquired 15 properties, with one acquisition and two offers pending, Smith said.

Two property owners are disputing Metro's offering prices and are working with the Metro Legal Department to resolve the matter, she added.

"When dealing with factors such as property acquisition, ensuring fair market value, etc., it takes some time to complete so that construction can begin," Smith said. "The project â¦ involves multiple business relocations and right-of-way needs. And following our due diligence to make sure everyone is being treated fairly and all aspects have been addressed is of the utmost importance."

The extension will result in Division and Ash streets being fused and will connect (geographically moving from Eighth Avenue on the west to Second Avenue on the east) The Gulch, Pie Town, SoBro, Rutledge Hill and Rolling Mill Hill.

As a complete street, the Division Street Extension is expected to result in improved vehicular flow and will offer bike lanes, wide sidewalks and landscaping. The extension will include a viaduct and be similar in form and function to the 28th/31st Avenues Connector, also a complete street, located on the city's west side and running along the eastern border of the under-construction oneC1TY. (See image here courtesy of Google Maps.)

In addition, some are hoping that the improved connectivity via the updated street will spur urban infill development within the general area. For example, businesses and buildings related to flo{thinkery}, City Winery and Tennessee Brew Works have been, or will be, established in the area near the extension since, in part, its announcement. Long-standing icons like Dury's and Frugal MacDoogle, among others, also operate from the area.

Specifically, the Metro Public Works Department Engineering Division is handling the project with assistance from the Nashville office of Gresham, Smith & Partners.

(Read more here and here about the project; the bottom image is courtesy of Google Maps.)

(Image courtesy of Metro Public Works Department)

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