Phase II work is progressing for the Cumberland Avenue reconstruction project, with six street closures scheduled through mid-March – including a complete closure of Cumberland Avenue at 17th Street the weekend of March 12-14.
 
Southern Constructors Inc. will be closing the Cumberland-17th Street intersection to accommodate underground utility installation starting at 5 a.m. Saturday, March 12. The intersection is scheduled to reopen at 6 a.m. Monday, March 14.
 
During the closures, through traffic should use Volunteer Boulevard as an alternate route. Local traffic may detour onto White Avenue or Lake Avenue.
 
“This part of the project represents a small milestone, because the utility work has rolled out to the eastern edge of the Cumberland Project,” said Anne Wallace, the City’s Deputy Director of Redevelopment. “We are pleased that the underground utility work is on schedule and should be completed in the near future.
 
“The merchants are enthusiastic about the transformation taking place. We’re committed to working with them to minimize road-closure inconveniences by carefully scheduling them in a way that maintains access to the restaurants and retailers. For example, the Cumberland closure was intentionally scheduled during the University of Tennessee’s spring break to reduce traffic impacts.”
 
Other closures are scheduled for next week:
 
• White Avenue, between 17th and 18th streets – 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, March 7, through Friday, March 11. A contractor will be pouring concrete for construction at The Standard, a 240-plus-unit apartment complex being built on the southwest corner of 17th Street and White Avenue.
 
• The alley south of White Avenue, between 17th and 18th streets – 7 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday, March 7, through Wednesday, March 9. A contractor will be doing utility work associated with The Standard.
 
• 19th Street, between Cumberland Avenue and White Avenue – 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday, March 7, through Friday, March 11. Southern Constructors Inc. will be adding stormwater infrastructure as part of the City’s Cumberland Project.
 
• The alley south of White Avenue, between 18th and 19th streets – Closed at the western end due to utility work associated with the Cumberland Project.
 
• 17th Street, between Cumberland and White avenues – A right-hand northbound lane will be closed from Monday, March 14, through Monday morning, March 21. Southern Constructors Inc. will be installing a new water main.
 
Most infrastructure upgrades throughout the Cumberland Avenue Corridor are part of the City of Knoxville’s $17 million Cumberland reconstruction, to be completed by August 2017. (Improvements that are part of private construction projects are coordinated with the City project in order to minimize effects on commuters and pedestrians.)
 
The City’s reconstruction will change the existing four-lane Cumberland between 22nd and 17th streets to a three-lane cross section with a raised median and left-turn lanes at intersections. An earlier phase of work on the western end of Cumberland focused on improving traffic flow between the Alcoa Highway ramps and 22nd Street; that phase finished at the end of 2015, on time and under budget.
 
More information is available at www.CumberlandConnect.com, on the Cumberland Connect Facebook page, facebook.com/CumberlandConnect, and on the Cumberland Connect phone app.
 
Or text VFL to 313131 to get text messages on the most current traffic updates.