Bart Borden, Electric Division engineer reporting for Dennis Daniel, manager of CU’s Electric Division, told members of the Cleveland Board of Public Utilities in a recent monthly session that the public utility will begin work to jump-start a new electric car charging station in Cleveland.
Cracker Barrel Restaurants actually announced the project several months ago by confirming its Cleveland location will be one of 24 charging stations to be installed along the Interstate 24, 75 and 40 loop from Nashville to Chattanooga to Knoxville and back to Nashville.
Borden said this will become the first electric car charging station in the Cleveland and Bradley County community. It is expected that more will follow by other site owners whether by existing businesses or other developers.
Several months ago, members of the Cleveland Municipal Planning Commission were alerted that electric car charging stations will likely become a part of the future because of the emergence of new-vehicle models being launched by several automobile manufacturers. City planner Greg Thomas pointed out then that the city of Cleveland should begin considering how to accommodate charging stations in the future.
To date, no further action has been taken by the municipality.
“A request for power to the new electric car charging station at Cracker Barrel Restaurant has been received,” Borden confirmed. “This service will be 277/480 volt and rated at 150 amps.”
Work will begin on hooking up the planned charging station soon.
In other Electric Division reports:
- A work order was issued and completed to provide power to an additional building for Gray Epperson Mitsubishi on the APD 40 bypass. The building will initially have lighting load, but is planned to have three-phase power in the future, Borden said.
- A work order was issued to install underground electric facilities to The Cottages at Spring Creek. This development consists of 10 lots for future cottage homes.
- A work order was issued and completed to connect customer services for Buffalo Wild Wings Restaurant and Batteries Plus Outlet Store in the new Mouse Creek Crossing Development.
- The Chatata Creek Substation construction project is progressing on schedule. The underground conduit system and structure grounding have been installed. The underground conduits for the incoming 69 KV circuit and outgoing 13 KV feeders have been installed. The fenced perimeter concrete curbing is being installed and gravel will soon be placed on the site surface. Control wiring installation is 95 percent complete. Relay programming and equipment testing will follow. At last report by Daniel, the substation should be powered up in November.
- Bids have been received for the mast-arm poles for the traffic signals at First Baptist Church on Stuart Road. The lower bid is $14,420; however, First Baptist Church has advised Cleveland Utilities to put this project on hold until further notice, Borden cited. He said no further details are available and that because of the stop-work request the poles have not been ordered.
- The division’s engineering department worked with John Wall of NABCO Inc. to develop signal timing plans for the new traffic lights at the Exit 25/I-75 and 25th Street ramps. The two new signals were added to the Fiber Optic network and interfaced with the Intelligent Traffic System computer. Borden said the new signals are operating properly and that traffic engineers continue to tweak them slightly based on study observations.
