Main Street mayhem
New closures begin for downtown improvement project underway
Motorists entering downtown Clinton from the north on Main Street on Monday morning encountered this roadblock and a detour onto North Hicks Street, as work began on street and sidewalks improvements similar to those that have closed Market Street to vehicular traffic for the past six weeks. Main Street closures are expected to last through late November. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Starting at 9 a.m. Monday, Main Street was closed to traffic from Cullom Street to East Church Street, and will remain so until Sept. 12. Other parts of Main Street will be closed through Nov. 24.
From Sept. 15-Oct. 3, Main Street will be closed to traffic from East Church Street to Kincaid Street.
Next, from Oct. 6-24, Main Street will be shut down from Kincaid Street to Broad Street.
For the current phase, through Sept. 12, the detour routes will be:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street): follow North Hicks Street to West Broad Street then back to Main Street.
• Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow West Broad Street to North Hicks Street then back to Main Street.
Flaggers are on duty to help keep motorists on track.
For Phase 2, from Sept. 15-Oct. 3, the detour routes will be:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow East Church Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Kincaid Street as the designated detour.
• Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Kincaid Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to East Church Street as the designated detour.
For Phase 3, Oct. 6-24, the detour routes will be:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Kincaid Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Broad Street as the designated detour.
• Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Broad Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Kincaid Street as the designated detour.
The closures will repeat when the “concrete segment” of the Main Street work begins:
Phase 1: Nov. 3-10, the section of Main Street between Kincaid Street and Broad Street will be closed for construction.
Detour routes:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Kincaid Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Broad Street as the designated detour.
• Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Broad Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Kincaid Street as the designated detour.
Phase 2: Nov. 10-17, the section of Main Street between East Church Street and Kincaid Street will be closed.
Detour routes:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow East Church Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Kincaid Street as the designated detour.
• Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Kincaid Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to East Church Street as the designated detour.
Phase 3: Nov. 17-24, the section of Main Street between East Church Street and Cullom Street will be closed.
Detour routes:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street):
Follow North Hicks Street to West Broad Street to Main Street as the designated detour.
• Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow West Broad Street to North Hicks Street to Main Street as the designated detour.
The schedule for the Main Street closures and the detour routes during those shutdowns are detailed online at clintontn.net/o/clinton/page/main-street.
This is part of a $9.9 million project that began in late February and is expected to last for about 17 months total in the historic area of downtown Clinton as new water and sewer lines are installed, sidewalks are replaced and improved, and landscaping is added.
The complete Market Street shutdown came in July after downtown merchants met with the city and asked for the street to be closed so the work could be speeded up and finished earlier than originally scheduled.
Historic Downtown Clinton Program Director Katherine Birkbeck said the merchants all agreed to the shutdown with the understanding that work would proceed more quickly.
Even with the street closing, businesses on Market Street are all “open as usual, and plenty of free parking is available in the public lot on Cullom Street,” Birkbeck said earlier.
Clinton Utilities Board is able to keep the water on during construction because the new water and sewer lines will be laid under the sidewalks, while the current ones, which run under the street, will not be disturbed and will be abandoned in place when the new lines are up and running, city officials said.
Brief water cutoffs will occur only as each customer is connected to the new water and sewer lines once they are in place, CUB has said.
Barricades have been in place since the shutdown at the top of Market Street where it meets Main Street, and on the other end to Cullom Street. Part of Cullom also is closed, right next to the corner building.
Boundaries of the project are nearly all of Market Street, from Cullom to Main, then Main from Market to Broad streets; and Broad from Main Street to Lakefront Park at Charles G. Seivers Boulevard. Pearl Alley off Market Street will also be included.
“It’s going to be a mess during the construction, but we want people to know it’s going to be built back great,” Clinton City Manager Roger Houck said earlier.
“We’ve been working with our downtown merchants to help limit the impact on them, and we’ve encouraged them to plan on using their rear doors, if they have them,” he said. “Businesses with no rear access might be closed for a day or two while work is going on in front.”
According to the Historic Downtown Clinton organization, the completed project will include:
• Level spaces at building entrances.
• Twenty-inch seat walls with flower beds that include layered shrubs, grasses and perennials.
• On Pearl Alley, “gateway to Market Street – medium and flowering trees to frame the space between buildings.”
• A “two-sided historic-looking clock.”
• “Large canopy trees” to “provide a strong impact at key intersections.”
• “Medium canopy trees [to] provide a rhythm and a constant presence.”
• “Flowering trees [to] provide visual interest.”
• “Decorative bollards at parking spaces.”
• “Updated utilities and sewer infrastructure.”
Planning began in 2019, and the project is being financed in part by two Transportation Alternative Program, or TAP, grants, totaling $4.84 million, from the Tennessee Department of Transportation; a $2.3 million federal grant from the COVID-era American Rescue Act; $1.5 million from Clinton Utilities Board; and $1.2 million from the city of Clinton.
“Water and sewer had to be improved; they’re replacing lines close to 90 years old,” Houck said just before work began. “The TAP grants are to help make Market and Main streets more pedestrian friendly, adding landscaping, benches and other accessories to downtown.”
“We will be digging up the sidewalks for the new water and sewer lines, and the ones under the road will be abandoned,” he said.
Knoxville-based Cannon & Cannon is doing engineering work on the project, while Adams Contractors of Lexington, Kentucky, is the main contractor.
