Check out this cool photo of the new Baker Creek Preserve Pavilion, illuminated by the lights along the Baker Creek Greenway.
The new $2.6 million amenity – hardscape areas, picnic tables, a water-filling station, parking spaces, and yes, much-requested restrooms! – will open sometime early in the new year.
ICYMI, it's been a busy last few months in terms of City investments and construction throughout the Urban Wilderness. More is coming.
In November, Mayor Indya Kincannon, City Council members and South Knoxville neighborhood advocates cut the ceremonial ribbon and officially opened the City’s newest sidewalk on Lancaster Drive.
The $1.5 million Lancaster Drive sidewalk was the City’s third major investment in pedestrian corridors in the past year – following the openings of Atlantic Avenue and Texas Avenue sidewalks. The three projects reflect a nearly $6 million City investment to enhance public safety while also connecting great spaces and neighborhoods. (Coming next: A $2 million streetscape project in Burlington.)
Elsewhere in the Urban Wilderness:
• Designs are being finalized and construction proposals will be sought in 2024 for slides, play structures, a pavilion and restrooms to be added in the coming years at the Urban Wilderness Gateway Park, at the James White Parkway terminus at Sevierville Pike.
• An Adventure Playground (an approximate $640,000 investment) is scheduled to be installed in 2024 on the hill between the Baker Creek Preserve pavilion and Baker Creek Bottoms businesses.
• Work will continue over the next two years on the Cottrell Street Greenway, which will connect the Baker Creek Greenway at Sevierville Pike and eventually continue on to Sevier Avenue and Anita Drive, while engineering design work is underway for a greenway crossing the James White Parkway bridge.
• Also next year, installation will begin on $3.5 million worth of upgrades at Augusta Quarry: restrooms, changing rooms, floating beach and swim platforms, an expanded overlook and a more accessible trail to the quarry.