Permanent Changes to Magnolia Avenue Scheduled for Tuesday

Knoxville, Tenn.—The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is advising motorists of major changes to the Magnolia Avenue / Hall of Fame Drive area near downtown Knoxville. Beginning Tuesday, May 29 the following streets will be changed:

• Magnolia Avenue (SR 1/US 11) will connect directly to 5th Avenue at the intersection of Hall of Fame Drive to provide a continuous route west to Broadway.
• The section of Magnolia Avenue between the BellSouth Building and James White Parkway will be known as Old Magnolia Avenue until the city of Knoxville designates a permanent name for this section.

Construction crews will begin making the switch on Tuesday, May 29 at 9 a.m. and will complete the work by 4 p.m. Motorists need to be alert for changing conditions when traveling through this area during those times.

Drivers wishing to access Old Magnolia Avenue from the east should turn left onto Hall of Fame Drive and then right onto Old Magnolia Avenue.

“To make the switch we will have to remove striping and temporary signals, re-stripe, add stop bars and double yellow lines and energize new traffic signals,” said Jeff Walker, spokesperson for Ray Bell Construction. “The work is also dependant on the weather. Striping cannot be applied to wet pavement, so if it rains the work will be delayed until the weather permits.”

In conjunction with these changes, Randolph Street at Magnolia Avenue will close for two weeks in order to reconnect it with Magnolia Avenue. Motorists will be detoured to Depot Street then to Georgia Street and then back to Magnolia Avenue.

Two maps have been attached to help explain these changes. The “Magnolia-HOF” PDF is of current Magnolia Avenue and the “Magnolia-Final” PDF shows what Magnolia Avenue and Old Magnolia Avenue will look like after the changes on May 29.

SmartFIX40 is TDOT’s single most expensive construction project in its 90-year history. Broken into two separate construction contracts, SmartFIX40 has a price tag of approximately $190 million. SmartFIX is an accelerated construction process used by the department to speed up construction. It involves closing the primary roadway 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 inconvenience to drivers. Using the SmartFIX concept will save over two years of construction time.