$9.9M project begins
Clinton downtown set for makeover
Market Street, the heart of Clinton’s historic downtown shopping district, will undergo major upgrades and improvements to sidewalks, utility lines, and landscaping over the next year-and-a-half under a $9.9 million project that began on Monday (Feb. 24). (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The $9.9 million project, which City Manager Roger Houck said will take a projected 510 days to complete, began on Monday with preliminary work on the replacement of the utility lines.
Boundaries of the project are nearly all of Market Street, from Cullom to Main streets; Main Street from Market to Broad streets; and Broad Street, from Main Street to Lakefront Park across Charles G. Seivers Boulevard. Pearl Alley off Market Street will also be included.
“It’s going to be a mess during the construction, but we want people to know it’s going to be built back great,” Houck said.
“We’ve been working with our downtown merchants to help limit the impact on them, and we’ve encouraged them to plan on using their rear doors, if they have them,” he said. “Businesses with no rear access might be closed for a day or two while work is going on in front.”
The downtown businesses have been kept informed about the project all along, said Kathie Creasey, owner of Granny’s Attic at 370 Market St.
“I’m excited about it,” she said. “All I’ve seen (of the plans), it looks nice. We will have new sidewalks, and they will be doing benches and nice greenery after they get the utility work done.
“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,” she said.
Creasey and Houck emphasized that downtown businesses will remain open and ready to serve their customers throughout the project.
According to information provided by 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.”
Houck said planning for this project began in 2019, and it’s 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.
“The TAP grants are to help make Market and Main streets more pedestrian friendly, adding landscaping, benches and other accessories to downtown,” the city manager said.
“We will be digging up the sidewalks for the new water and sewer lines, and the ones under the road will be abandoned,” he said.
Knoxville-based Cannon & Cannon is doing engineering work on the project, while Adams Contractors of Lexington, Kentucky, is the main contractor, Houck said.
