Due to possible heavy rain tonight, the start of a temporary closure of two blocks of Cumberland Avenue between 17th and 19th streets for underground utility work has been postponed for a day.
Crews will begin installing an underground electrical line at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 29. The work will conclude as originally scheduled by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016.
Vehicular through traffic will be detoured to Clinch Avenue between 17th and 19th streets, and local traffic and pedestrian access to businesses along Cumberland Avenue will be maintained.
“Cumberland Avenue remains open for business, and customers are encouraged to ring in the new year by patronizing their favorite Cumberland merchants,” said Anne Wallace, the City’s Deputy Director of Redevelopment. “With the Vols playing in the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day, many Cumberland restaurants will be showing the game and offering special menu items and game-day festivities.”
The underground electrical line will carry power from a Knoxville Utilities Board substation at Dale Avenue to the Cumberland Avenue area and beyond. Burying the line will allow for the removal of overhead power lines along Cumberland Avenue, part of the City’s overall $17 million reconstruction of the corridor.
Phase I work on the western end of Cumberland, between the Alcoa Highway ramps and 22nd Street, is coming to an end – on time and on budget. Improving traffic flow was a key objective of the Phase I work. Synchronized traffic flow at Metron Center Way and a dedicated turn lane onto northbound Alcoa Highway have lessened decades-long issues with congestion.
Phase II work is underway in the section of Cumberland Avenue between 22nd and 17th streets. Scheduled to be completed in August 2017, the reconstruction will change the existing four-lane street on the eastern end of the corridor to a three-lane cross section with a raised median and left-turn lanes at intersections between 22nd Street and 17th Street.
In both the Phase I and Phase II work, Cumberland Avenue sidewalks are being widened, and utility infrastructure relocated and upgraded, to create a more attractive, safer, pedestrian-friendly corridor.
More information is available at www.CumberlandConnect.com, on the Cumberland Connect Facebook page, www.facebook.com/CumberlandConnect, and on the Cumberland Connect phone app.