Watch your speed
40-mph limit now in effect on Seivers
A new 40-mph speed limit is now in effect on Seivers Boulevard near the approach to Exit 122. (photo:G Chambers Williams III )
Clinton Chief of Police Vaughn Becker said the speed limit was lowered there recently after he recommended that the city look at it “because of the increased traffic associated with new businesses” in that area.
“The city contracted with a traffic engineering firm, and we went with their recommendation to lower it to 40,” Becker said.
The new speed limit is now in effect from Y-12 Federal Credit Union through the area where two new strip shopping centers and other businesses have opened recently, and where a new traffic light has been installed but not yet activated at the Seivers Boulevard intersection with Doe Run Boulevard.
Before that, there is a short section where 45 mph is still in effect, beginning near Ray Varner Ford when the limit drops from the 55 mph in effect almost all the way to the Clinch River bridge.
“Traffic engineers don’t like for the speed limit to drop more than 10 mph all at once, so it drops from 55 to 45 and then to 40,” Becker said.
There are two new sets of traffic signals still waiting to be activated in the area approaching I-75 on Seivers Boulevard and on Hillvale Road at the turnoff onto Tanner Lane (going into the Walmart area).
The new traffic lights have appeared to be ready to go for weeks now, but both are still waiting for installation of the electronics needed to operate them, Becker said.
“There is still a back order on the stainless-steel boxes the [electronic] equipment goes into,” the chief said. “We’ve been working on these lights for over a year.”
The new 40-mph speed limit is in effect just to the Exit 122 interchange, Becker said. After crossing I-75, the limit goes back up to 45 mpg on the east side of I-75.
Motorists have been clamoring for a traffic signal at Hillvale Road and Tanner Lane for years, as there is only that one exit out of the Walmart shopping area. Traffic often gets backed up on Tanner Lane with vehicles waiting to turn left onto Hillvale.
Traffic flow there is complicated by the second entrance to Walmart just past Tanner Lane, where vehicles can go in, but are not allowed to exit back out onto Hillvale.
The new traffic signal at Seivers and Doe Run boulevards will help accommodate traffic entering the housing subdivision on Doe Run north of Seivers, as well as vehicles entering and leaving the new businesses on both sides of Seivers.
That will soon include the new Tidal Wave Auto Spa car wash, under construction on the north side of Seivers just west of Doe Run, next door to City Limit Auto Sales.