KUB and its contractor will be closing a section of 17th Street between Cumberland Avenue and White Avenue from 10 p.m. Thursday, April 7, until 6 a.m. Friday, April 8, as work continues on the natural gas system.

East-west Cumberland Avenue motorists will not be affected by the overnight closure on 17th Street. 

To access westbound Cumberland Avenue, southbound 17th Street motorists should detour right onto Clinch Avenue, then turn left onto 22nd Street to connect with Cumberland. To access eastbound Cumberland, drivers on 17th Street should detour left onto White Avenue, then right onto 16th Street to connect with Cumberland.

The infrastructure upgrades are part of the City of Knoxville’s $17 million Cumberland Avenue reconstruction, to be completed by August 2017.

The 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.

The City’s investment in infrastructure and streetscape upgrades will create a more attractive, safer, pedestrian-friendly Cumberland Avenue Corridor.

Meanwhile, work on an unrelated private development project will close a section of 18th Street between Cumberland and White avenues between Monday, April 11, and Thursday, April 14. The work also will reduce 17th Street to one lane in each direction.

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. Or text VFL to 313131 to get text messages on the most current traffic updates.