This summer, eight deteriorating brick crosswalks at three South Gay Street intersections will be replaced. The upgrade to stained stamped concrete crosswalks marks the first major upgrades at the Gay Street intersections with Union and Wall avenues and Summit Hill Drive in three decades.

Design and Construction Services Inc. has been awarded the $182,040 contract and will be dividing the work into two phases spanning 40 calendar days.

The first phase involves replacement of four crosswalks at two intersections – three crosswalks at Wall Avenue and Gay, another at Summit Hill and Gay – beginning Monday, July 9. 

Once that work is completed, DCSI crews will move southward and replace the four crosswalks at Union Avenue and Gay. The entire project is scheduled to wrap up by Aug. 17; daily penalties will be assessed if the contractor misses the deadline for completion.

A public meeting will be held June 28, 2018 at 5:30 p.m. at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St. so that City staff – including Downtown Coordinator Rick Emmett and Engineering Department managers – can explain details of the project.

Have questions about recommended detours? Access to parking lots? Where commercial trucks will be directed to make deliveries?

Click here to view a map in PDF format that will address those issues.



City staff will be available to answer group questions or to meet one on one with attendees after the presentation.

At all times, sidewalks will remain open, and ADA-accessible ramps for temporary crosswalks will be built to avoid long pedestrian detours around the work zones.

During the Phase 1 work at the Summit Hill and Wall intersections, commercial loading will be allowed on the west side of Gay in the 300 block. The crosswalk on Gay at Summit Hill will be done one lane at a time, so that one lane is always open to local traffic – including delivery trucks or motorists parking in two surface parking lots in the 300 block.

Northbound Gay Street motorists during Phase 1 will be detoured by turning right onto Union, then left onto State Street to access Summit Hill. Southbound motorists will turn off Summit Hill onto Locust Street, then left onto Union to access Gay Street.

During Phase 2, closures will extend southward on Gay to just north of the Clinch Avenue intersection. Commercial loading zones will be in place on Market Street, near Market Square. Traffic flow will temporarily be reversed on one block of Market Street to allow local traffic and delivery vehicles to exit onto Clinch.

Northbound Gay Street motorists during the Phase 2 work at Union and Gay will detour left onto Clinch, then right onto Walnut to access Summit Hill.

Southbound motorists will head south off Summit Hill onto Locust, then left onto Church to access Gay Street.

Those details and more will be discussed at the June 28 public meeting. Anyone needing a disability accommodation to attend the meeting should contact the City’s ADA Coordinator, Stephanie Cook, at [email protected] or 865-215-2034. For an English interpreter, contact Title VI Coordinator Tatia M. Harris at 865-215-2831.