East Fifth Avenue Temporarily Closing
Clearing space for new Hall of Fame Drive

Knoxville, Tenn.—The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) announced Thursday that East Fifth Avenue between Central Street and North Fifth Avenue will close Monday, May 8, 2006 at 9 a.m. to allow grading work on East Fifth Avenue. Weather pending, the closure will last for six weeks.

“The grading of East Fifth Avenue is part of the ongoing construction of the new Hall of Fame Drive,” said Ray Bell spokesperson Jeff Walker. “We’ve finished clearing the area and now we have to grade it all and make the road come together.”

The grading work will connect North Fifth Avenue to Magnolia Avenue and eventually to Summit Hill Drive. This road will make up the new Hall of Fame Drive that connects Summit Hill Drive to Broadway.

An average 5,770 drivers use this road each day. A detour will direct motorists from Central Street to Magnolia Avenue to Jessamine Street.

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.