Blog: City Blog

Public Works Week: Colorful Paint Job Delights Park Visitors

If you’re seeing rainbows at the World’s Fair Park, no need to adjust your sunglasses! It's merely another #KnoxvilleJobWellDone.

Rainbow Clinch Viaduct

Our City of Knoxville Public Service Facilities team worked with Visit Knoxville to paint the undersides of the Clinch Avenue viaduct in a delightful array of colors of the spectrum. Shades of ROY, G and BIV are all represented.

Public Service foreman Kevin Johnson oversaw the project with a team of four, including himself.

He coordinated with VK Director Kim Bumpas to translate the colors in their graphic design into paint colors.
Visit Knoxville selected the colors that would complete the rainbow effect with the sky-blue backdrop of Kelsey Montague’s mural, which was dedicated May 23, 2021.

After a contractor made a few repairs to the viaduct, including patching surfaces to be painted, Johnson painted full-wall swatches of each color to review before proceeding with the entire space. Crew members cut in using brushes to tackle the detail work around the lights on each of the viaduct’s arches. They used one-inch knap paint rollers to tackle the rest of the job.

Johnson had the honor of painting the ceilings, using a scissor lift truck parked below the viaduct in fountain bed drained of water.

The project was funded by the City of Knoxville, Downtown Knoxville and Visit Knoxville.

Keep your eye on the City Blog for additional #PublicWorksWeek posts, May 15-21, 2022.

Posted by ptravis On 16 May, 2022 at 3:54 PM