Project at a Glance

• Location: Knoxville, TN

• Client: City of Knoxville

• Purpose: Replace aging signal poles and foundations to eliminate astructural safety hazard and modernize traffic signal infrastructure

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About the Project

Traffic signal poles do more than hold equipment in place. When they're failing from the inside out, they become a real safety risk to everyone who passes beneath them, on foot or behind the wheel. That's the problem Stansell Electric was brought in to solve on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. Working with the City of Knoxville and Gresham Smith, the project involves removing and replacing 21 aging signal poles, along with the foundations they sit in.
This wasn't a routine pole swap. The original poles were installed under the sidewalk back in the 1980s, in a configuration that never allowed moisture to properly drain. Over decades, that trapped moisture caused the poles to rust from the inside out, a problem invisible from the outside until one of the poles actually fell during a storm. The result is a project built around getting ahead of a hazard hiding in plain sight, on one of Knoxville's busiest downtown corridors.

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Key Features

• Removal and replacement of 21 signal poles along Gay Street

• Full foundation removal and reconstruction, brought flush with the sidewalk

• New rebar installation in rebuilt foundations

• Design-build foundation approach, adjusting in real time as field conditions differ from original plans

• Custom pole fabrication, with manufacturer-drilled and tapped mounting holes for precise, centered signal alignment

• Close coordination with Gresham Smith for rapid foundation design revisions

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Precision in the Field

Removing a badly rusted, structurally compromised pole and foundation is one thing. Doing it while maintaining plumb side walls and a level surface for new rebar, in the middle of heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic, is another. The crew's attention to that foundation work, work that isn't visible in the finished product, is what makes the new installation solid for decades to come.
When the existing foundations at the first intersection didn't match the original plans, the team moved quickly, submitting a rough design to the CEI and coordinating with Gresham Smith to get a revised foundation approved without slowing the project down. That kind of adaptability has defined the project from the start.

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Community Impact:

The Gay Street signal improvement project removes a hidden safety hazard from one of downtown Knoxville's most traveled corridors while modernizing the infrastructure for decades ahead.

• Elimination of structurally compromised, rusted signal poles before they can fail

• Custom-engineered pole and signal mounting for precise alignment

• Design-build foundation solutions that adapt to real, on-the-groundconditions

• Coordination between City of Knoxville, Gresham Smith, and Stansellto keep the project moving despite unexpected challenges

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Outcome:

Once complete, this project will replace 21 rusted, structurally compromised signal poles on Gay Street with new, custom-engineered poles and foundations built to last. The result is a safer, more reliable signal system for one of downtown Knoxville's busiest corridors.

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