In March 2007, we celebrated approval by the City of Brentwood and the State of Tennessee (after two years of negotiations) to improve the access to our campus by building two additional driveways and increasing our parking capacity. This will significantly improve our ability to get on and off our campus today and provide the infrastructure for future growth and our next phase of facilities (see campus map below).
7/15/2008 - Roads & Parking Update:
The Concord Road expansion is nearing completion with the curbing completed, the traffic lights being installed and sub-grade paving completed. In the next two weeks we will be continuing with these parts of the project and will repave and stripe Concord Road in the construction areas.
The North Entrance from Concord Road is 75% completed with final topping, striping, signage and landscaping still to complete. The new parking area near Concord House/Locker Room is roughed in and will be completed within the next month. We will be providing new campus maps and directions on use in the near future.
The bridge work coming in from the North and the corresponding parking is also in process and should be finished by the end of July. The grading work for the new soccer fields (the costs for these has been donated by an anonymous donor) and parking near the Learning Center is underway and again, is expected to be completed with the next 4-6 weeks. Most of the landscaping for the entire project will be done in October to prevent plant loss (from the heat), which is the optimum timing for the planting season. We will be installing some temporary signage initially as we open the entrance and parking and making final installations in the fall after verifying we have proper locations and information.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Wayne Price at 277-9512 or wprice@fbctn.org.
4/1/2008 Construction Update:
Since the work will be done in phases, NES has started the relocation of the power lines on Concord Road and the new poles are already installed. Also, erosion control fencing and some excavation of BBC/FELLOWSHIP site is underway. Obviously, the weather has been somewhat limiting our ability to grade parts of the site, but we are fortunate for the area to have been receiving much needed rains, considering the drought last year. Our plan is still to be able to complete the project (excluding landscaping) by mid-summer.
Construction Schedule:
Our target is to open the Concord Road driveway by August 2008. We also expect the new parking area to be completed at this time and do not anticipate any major impact to our current parking capacity/use during the process. Some of the finishing items such as landscaping are being scheduled for the fall, due to potential watering concerns during the summer and to take advantage of the optimum time to plant new plants.
Overall Roads & Parking Improvements Process:
The design for our Master Plan improvements was completed in October 2007 and we began the bidding and permitting process. Concurrently, we were working on the utility impacts with NES to relocate several power poles within the planned Concord Road renovations. We bid the project with six general contractors and various sub-contactors for specialty work related to lighting, landscaping and traffic signaling.
The original bids were received on November 11, 2007 and totaled over $2.6 million. At this point, we made the decision to reduce the costs to meet our budget. First, we revised the scope of the improvements further based on the cumulative comments we received from our contractors and designers. Next, we revisited with both TDOT and the City of Brentwood, asking to be able to phase portions of the Master Plan by building only those portions needed for this season of our church (the overall plan covered the next 10 years). After a series of negotiations, we were successful in our appeal. Third, we rebid the remaining areas we needed to build and verified pricing with our contractors, which was received January 4, 2008.
Upon receiving these prices we went back to both the contractors and the City of Brentwood one more time in the hopes of further reducing both the scope and costs. Fortunately, we were able to identify another part of the project that could be moved to a later phase, while also finding other costs reductions that allowed us to proceed.
Highlighted above on our campus site plan are the areas, which once completed (scheduled for August 2008), will have allowed us to add 211 parking spaces to the east, new turn lanes on Concord Road, a new driveway access to Concord Road from our campus (complete with traffic signals) as well as new soccer fields (separately funded).
The following improvements are planned (with some costs being shared with Brentwood Baptist):
-- North Access from FELLOWSHIP to Concord Road (partially shared with BBC)
-- Improve Concord Road lanes, add traffic signals and additional turn lanes (shared BBC/FELLOWSHIP)
-- Add additional parking to southeast of existing parking lot connected to Concord Road access (FELLOWSHIP only)
-- Other potential improvements (i.e., soccer fields, amphitheatre and additional parking) will be bid as funding is available.
-- BBC parking (BBC only)
To date, this body has given more than $1.177 million (direct giving of $1,139,294 and interest of $37,500 totaling $1,176,794) toward this project.
Why are we doing this?
The Scriptures (as well as our mission as a church) call us to an ever-deepening relationship with Jesus Christ that is reflected in an ever-expanding commitment to take the gospel to the world. What matters to Jesus is what matters to us. What matters to Jesus is the glory of the Father and the souls of people. For us, improved driveway access and parking represents people . . . both those who currently call Fellowship home and those whom we are called to love and serve - our friends, our neighbors and those we haven't even met yet . . . people who need Christ . . . who need to be challenged and equipped, just like us. It is not unlike our efforts in Nigeria or Peru or Sudan to build the infrastructure needed to invite people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, grow them in their faith and equip them to give their lives away.
Practically speaking, when the Mallory Lane Extension referendum was defeated several years ago, we lost the additional access that we had worked to secure when we bought this property. Over the last two years, we have been in negotiations with the City of Brentwood, Otter Creek Church of Christ, Living Word Community Church and Brentwood Baptist Church regarding the additional land and access needed to accommodate our current challenges and our future needs.
To donate online, please click on the button above, and select "Capital Funds & Special Projects" then "Access Project" -OR- write
"Access Project" in the memo line of your check and drop it in the offering. If you have any further questions or wish to
discuss the planned improvements, please email Wayne
Price or call him at 277-9512.
