Glenwood Avenue Bridge Closing for Nine Months

Knoxville, Tenn. – The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) announced Thursday that the Glenwood Avenue Bridge will close for nine months beginning Tuesday, February 28, 2006 at 9 a.m. for reconstruction. Glenwood Avenue between Broadway Avenue and North Sixth Avenue will also be closed to through traffic.

The bridge will be lengthened to facilitate the additional space necessary for the construction of Hall of Fame Drive underneath.

The Glenwood Bridge will be barricaded by portable barriers at Luttrell Street and the west side of Fourth Avenue. A suggested alternate route is Grainger Avenue to Sixth Avenue.

SmartFIX40 is an accelerated construction process used by the department to speed up construction. It involves closing the primary roadway at a designated project to allow around-the-clock work that is uninterrupted by traffic in order to dramatically reduce the time it takes to complete the project, thereby reducing the long-term inconveniences to drivers.

In the SmartFIX40 project, James White Parkway will be closed for nine months in 2007, and I-40 through traffic will be rerouted onto I-640 for 14 months starting in the spring of 2008. Local traffic will have access to downtown at all times. Over two years of traffic delays, lane closures and motorist frustrations will be avoided by allowing construction crews the opportunity to work without restriction from moving traffic while traffic is rerouted from I-40. I-40 through downtown Knoxville carries an average of 103,000 vehicles a day.