Main, Market street construction continues
This section of Main Street, between Leinart and Church streets, remained closed to vehicular traffic this week as construction work continued on the street and sidewalks. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The section from Church to Leinart streets, which was closed last Tuesday, remained blocked to traffic Monday, and will remain that way about another week, until work moves into the Phase 3 area, from Leinart to Broad streets.
As the schedule was originally announced in mid-August, Main Street was to be shut down in three phases, two times each, from Aug. 24 through Nov. 24.
In the first phase, Main Street was closed from Cullom to Church streets Aug. 24 until week before last.
After Phase 3 is completed, the three-step process will repeat, with the final work planned to be finished in late November to mid-December, weather permitting.
Traffic disruptions are the result of street, sidewalk and utility construction work that has already kept most of Market Street shut down since mid-July, blocking vehicular access to the fronts of most of the downtown businesses along Market Street.
All of the Market and Main street businesses remain open throughout the construction, with parking available in the two downtown parking lots – on Commerce Street and on North Main Street at North Hicks Street.
Even with Market and part of Main Street closed, the Clinch River Fall Antique Festival was held successfully Oct. 3-4, with the usual Market Street vendors set up instead in part of the Commerce Street parking lot and on a section of Commerce.
Even with the streets closed, Historic Downtown Clinton merchants remain open and accessible to visitors, Houck said.
For the current Main Street shutdown (Phase 2), from Church to Leinart streets, the detour routes are:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow East Church Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Kincaid Street as the designated detour.
• Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Kincaid Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to East Church Street as the designated detour.
For Phase 3, detour routes will be:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Kincaid Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Broad Street as the designated detour.
• Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Broad Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Kincaid Street as the designated detour.
The closures will repeat when the “concrete segment” of the Main Street work begins, tentatively scheduled for Nov. 3-24:
Phase 1: Nov. 3-10, the section of Main Street between Kincaid Street and Broad Street will be closed for construction.
Detour routes:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Kincaid Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Broad Street as the designated detour.
• Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Broad Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Kincaid Street as the designated detour.
Phase 2: Nov. 10-17, the section of Main Street between East Church Street and Kincaid Street will be closed.
Detour routes:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow East Church Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to Kincaid Street as the designated detour.
*Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow Kincaid Street to North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard to East Church Street as the designated detour.
Phase 3: Nov. 17-24, the section of Main Street between East Church Street and Cullom Street will be closed.
Detour routes:
• Southbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow North Hicks Street to West Broad Street to Main Street as the designated detour.
• Northbound traffic (toward Market Street): Follow West Broad Street to North Hicks Street to Main Street as the designated detour.
The schedule for the Main Street closures and the detour routes during those shutdowns are detailed online at clintontn.net/o/clinton/page/main-street.
This is part of a $9.9 million project that began in late February and is expected to last for about 17 months total in the historic area of downtown Clinton as new water and sewer lines are installed, sidewalks are replaced and improved, and landscaping is added.
The complete Market Street shutdown came in July after downtown merchants met with the city and asked for the street to be closed so the work could be speeded up and finished earlier than originally scheduled.
Barricades have been in place since the shutdown at the top of Market Street where it meets Main Street, and on the other end to just east of Cullom Street.
Boundaries of the project are nearly all of Market Street, from Cullom to Main, then Main from Market to Broad streets; and Broad from Main Street to Lakefront Park at Charles G. Seivers Boulevard. Pearl Alley off Market Street will also be included.
The project includes:
• 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” flowering trees to frame the space between buildings.
• A “two-sided historic-looking clock.”
• “Flowering trees [to] provide visual interest.”
• “Decorative bollards at parking spaces.”
• “Updated utilities and sewer infrastructure.”