Starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday, June 30, two of the four lanes on 17th Street between Clinch Avenue and Cumberland Avenue will be closed. 

The closures on the two-block section of 17th Street will allow utility work that is part of the construction of The Standard, a 240-plus-unit apartment complex being built on the southwest corner of 17th Street and White Avenue.

The work – underground electrical and communication duct bank construction – will continue into August. One northbound lane and one southbound lane on 17th Street will remain open through the two-block section. The sidewalk on the west side of 17th Street also will be closed.

The 17th Street closures are not directly part of the City of Knoxville’s Cumberland Avenue redesign project. However, Bob Whetsel, the City’s Director of Redevelopment, believes the City’s investment in infrastructure in the Cumberland Avenue Corridor is helping to successfully leverage major private reinvestment in the area.

“The City is committing $17 million in local and federal funds into the Cumberland project,” Whetsel said. “When the redesign is completed in 2017, traffic will flow better, utility lines will have been relocated, and sidewalks will be wider and landscaped. Cumberland visitors and residents will enjoy a more attractive, safer, pedestrian-friendly corridor.

“The public investment is helping to stimulate dramatic redevelopment – more than $130 million in private investments – along the Cumberland Avenue Corridor, including The Standard.”