Downtown takes shape

City reports steady progress, eyes spring reopening for Market Street

December 31, 2025 by G. Chambers Williams III

Downtown Clinton merchants are remaining optimistic about their future in the coming year, as work continues on improvements to Market Street, which has been closed to traffic for extensive reconstruction since last March.

Clinton City Manager Roger Houck said last week that he believes the street and its all-new sidewalks will be ready and open in time for the Spring Antique Festival, scheduled for the first weekend in May.

“We’re at Day 335 of 546 days of construction, Houck said on Tuesday (Dec. 23). “That’s a little over 60% done. After the first of the year, weather permitting, we will begin drilling to install bases for new light posts.

“We’re already pouring new sidewalks and steps into the buildings, and we hope to have that completed by first of February. Then in February, we will be working on the planters for the street, and beginning March 1 we should begin planting the 200 or so trees and plants that will go on Market Street.

“On Main Street, the waterline replacement is almost complete, and for the sewer lines on Main and Broad streets, we still must hook up 38 laterals from the main to each business,” he said. “Those streets will be closed a block at a time for that, starting in the latter part of January.

“It will be spring before we see Market Street reopened, weather permitting,” Houck said.

“There will be new asphalt laid on Broad, Main, Market, Commerce and Cullom streets.

“We also hope to put new asphalt on the public parking on Commerce Street. It’s been 40-plus years since new asphalt was laid there.”

Overall, going into the new year, “We should see a major improvement in six to eight weeks, especially on Market Street,” Houck said. “It should be well put back together for the Spring Antique Festival.

“There’s just a lot of small stuff that’s got to be done,” he said. “As for broadband (Wi-Fi) for downtown, the conduit is already in for it. The irrigation still has to be put in for the planters.”

Houck said there will still be on-street parking downtown on Market Street, and that some on-street parking also is being added to Cullom Street.

As for the downtown parking meters, “We’re still undecided,” he said.

The construction is part of a $9.9 million project that began last February and was 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.

But the Historic Downtown Clinton Merchants Association has reminded people all through the project that “Businesses on Market Street will be open as usual, and plenty of free parking is available in the public lot on Cullom Street.”

The group also noted that “There will be no interruptions of (utility) service and water will not be turned off.”

“While the city is working as best they can not to close the street as much as possible, this was unfortunately unavoidable,” the merchants’ group said.

Clinton Utilities Board has been able to keep the water on during construction because the new water and sewer lines are going under the sidewalks, while the old ones, which run under the street, were not to 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.

Kathie Creasey, owner of Granny’s Attic at 370 Market St., said at the beginning that the downtown businesses had been kept informed about the project throughout the planning stages and up to the beginning of work last Feb. 24.

“We will have new sidewalks, and they will be doing benches and nice greenery after they get the utility work done,” she said.

“Obviously, the stores with front and back doors will have it easier; some of us down here do,” she added. “But they’re doing it a section at a time, and it sounds like they’re going to do it so it’s not terribly disruptive.”

The city and the merchants want people to know that all downtown businesses will remain open and ready to serve their customers throughout the project.



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.”

Knoxville-based Cannon & Cannon is doing engineering work on the project, while Adams Contractors of Lexington, Kentucky, is the main contractor, Houck said.