Construction Update - July 1, 2010

We are happy to finally announce that the ribbon cutting for the Streetscapes Project along the 100 and 200 blocks of S. Gay Street will be held on the morning of July 19, 2010. We had previously announced the date as July 20 but have now moved it up one day (a revised press release will be going out soon with the time). I will announce more about this as the day draws closer.

We will most certainly still have occasional lane closures for at least another month along the block but we are hopeful that at least one lane can remain open from here on out.

We will not plant the trees until the fall, probably in November and given their size, we will have to have some lane closures then as well.

The sod we had ordered for the Cradle of Country Music Park was to come from Nashville but because of the flooding there, this has been delayed so we still will have that bit of work to do.

Of course First Friday is July 2 and we hope to have much of the colored concrete poured on the eastern sidewalk by then. We must wait, however, until we begin our work on the final section of sidewalk in front of the Emporium so we can make sure the colors all are uniform with the concrete on Jackson Avenue.

The Jackson intersection will receive the same colored concrete treatments as the intersection of Vine Avenue and Gay Street. This will necessitate one remaining two week closure of this intersection beginning July 5, 2010 at 7:00 am.



For more information on First Friday events and on some fine organizations, please follow these links:

http://knoxvillefirstfriday.com/wp/
http://www.knoxalliance.com/
http://knoxvillemarketsquare.com/

Below are pictures of the Emporium building shortly after the road was reopened in 1919 and the next picture is of some of the business that went on there.




Since we have been able to move more quickly on this final bit of work, we will not have the parking kiosks in place by the ribbon cutting so we will simply stripe off the parking stalls and allow free parking until we can get these units installed.

Also, we apologize for all of the confusion over the misaligned parking meters on the O. P. Jenkins parking lot. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we can get that situation rectified but I am happy that KPD will not be enforcing parking meter violations here until we are able to restripe that lot. This work is now tentatively scheduled for July 11th. If all goes according to plan, we will post signs about this on Friday July 9, 2010 and clean the lot on the evening of July 10, 2010.

I am planning another 100 Block neighborhood meeting to be held at 5:30pm on Tuesday July 13 at the Emporium. I really hope many of you can attend to help us plan for the opening celebration and also to begin discussion about an 100 Block Neighborhood organization. Of course we will also review our progress on the project and the next steps until completion.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable 4th of July Holiday. I know many excellent events are planned downtown .

Thanks for your interest