Starting at 10 p.m. Monday, June 27, a contractor will be installing a new water line across Cumberland Avenue, promoting a closure of Cumberland between 17th and 19th streets until 6 a.m. Tuesday, June 28.
Overnight work by Southern Constructors Inc. crews on the project will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday nights as well, with the two-block section of Cumberland Avenue closing from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. the next morning.
Westbound motorists on Cumberland Avenue will be detoured onto Melrose Place to Lake Avenue to 19th Street before reconnecting to Cumberland. Eastbound motorists on Cumberland Avenue will be detoured onto 19th Street to Clinch Avenue to 17th Street before returning to Cumberland.
The water infrastructure upgrade by Knoxville Utilities Board is coordinated with 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.
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.