State Street Garage Update- April 3, 2013

The State Street garage expansion is proceeding as has been planned. Slight delays have been experienced due to some issues with the large crane and also involving some issues with the delivered precast concrete. These types of delays are expected in a project of this magnitude and the Contractors have done a good job in overcoming these obstacles. The current plan is that the crane will be needed on S. Central Street until April 15 to finish the precast installation on the north end of the garage.

Beginning next Monday, April 8, 2013, both S. Central Street and the eastern end of Union Avenue will be closed during construction hours. This work may take as long as that entire week to finish up. That portion of Union Avenue is within the swing radius of the crane so this closure is required for safety. The Union Avenue entrance to both the garage and the surface lot will be open however. On April 15, 2013, S. Central Street, Clinch Avenue, and Union Avenue will reopen to traffic at all times. At that time most of the garage will once again be available for parking.

On April 15, 2013, State Street will once again be closed for the week. A smaller crane will be brought in to install the overpass from the garage, over State Street, to the former escalator landing. When this work is ongoing, both the elevator and the temporary stairway will be out of service. The sidewalk on both Union Avenue and Clinch Avenue will be the designated routes to reach Gay Street. Both the elevator and the temporary stairway should be available night and weekends. By the end of April the overpass should be able to be used by the public on nights and weekends. The glass roof, lighting, and other details will still be in process so the overpass will likely not be open during the day for a few more weeks. The new elevator core has been constructed and the stairs are now in place there as well
 The schedule we are on currently will allow the State Street Garage expansion to be completely finished by July, 4, 2013.

A construction meeting is planned for next week so I will post again then to report any more details or changes to the schedule.

This weekend is the beginning of a very busy time Downtown with the start of the Dogwood Arts Festival (http://www.dogwoodarts.com/). The popular Rhythm N’ Blooms and the Chalk Walk will be this weekend at several venues in the Downtown area as well as many First Friday events including “Art on the Block” which will be held on the 100 Block of S. Gay Street. The next weekend is the Dogwood Arts Festival Art Fair. Several races will draw a lot of visitors Downtown this weekend as well including Color Me Rad on Saturday and the Knoxville Marathon on Sunday. Of course the last weekend in April will bring the wonderful Rossini Festival on S. Gay Street. The full schedule of events can be found on the City of Knoxville website at http://www.cityofknoxville.org/.

Thanks for your interest in the State Street Garage expansion project and I hope to see you soon Downtown soon.