Depot work under way in Cleveland, Tenn.
Written by jrood
Grade work on the driveway of the old Southern Railway Depot in downtown Cleveland, Tenn., is well under way. Once the exterior work is completed, restoration of the building will begin, the Cleveland Daily Banner reports.
According to Ray Evans,
Southeast Tennessee Human Resources Agency executive director, the depot will
be restored in two phases. The first phase includes grading the entrance and
exit to the property, building a retaining wall, replacing a section of sewer
line and manhole, and erecting a fence between the depot and railroad tracks.
The second phase will be
restoration of the building that was placed on the National and Tennessee
Register of Historic Places in April 2008. Some of the materials will be
updated. The roof will have the appearance of the original terra cotta tile,
but the new tiles will be made of aluminum.
"It will be beautiful
when it is finished," Ray said recently in a phone interview. "We are going to
bring it back to its original condition as much as we can."
The train depot will
become the central transfer point for the Cleveland Urban Area Transit System
and office complex, in keeping with its original purpose of mass transportation
when it was built in 1909 at a cost of $17,400, which included the property. The
last passenger trains serving the depot quit running in the late 1970s.
A groundbreaking ceremony
is expected in November between the end of Phase I and the start of Phase 2.
The $208,000 for Phase I
is a 100 percent American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 grant through
the Federal Transit Administration to the local transit system and SETHRA.
The building will be paid
for by an 80/20 matching Transportation Enhancement program, also using ARRA
funds passed through the Tennessee Department of Transportation and the city of
Cleveland. The federal government will pay $451,000 and SETHRA will be
responsible for about $113,000.
Evans said they are
waiting on permission from the state to let bids on the second phase.
In addition to the train
depot in Cleveland, SETHRA has purchased the old Health Department building in
Marion County. The two sites will eventually serve as transfer hubs for
transportation service to and from the Chattanooga area in addition to the
local fixed route transportation.
SETHRA has proposed
constructing a 15,000 square-foot building in Chattanooga to house its regional
transit and training center. The proposed Chattanooga facility will be the axis
to seamless transportation for rural communities in Bledsoe, Bradley, Grundy,
Marion, Meigs, McMinn, Polk, Rhea and Sequatchie counties.
