NEWS RELEASES City of Knoxville, Tennessee Bill Haslam, Mayor

City to Close Part of Tennessee Avenue

September 19, 2008 - The City of Knoxville will permanently close Tennessee Avenue to vehicular traffic between Western Avenue and Schofield Street on Monday, September 22. City Council voted to approve the closure last month after the move was requested by Gerdau Ameristeel, which has a plant nearby, for safety and environmental reasons. The Metropolitan Planning Commission recommended approving the measure and there were no objections to the closing from the city’s engineering and police departments or from the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Tennessee Avenue can still be accessed from Western via Keith Avenue and Schofield Streets. The roughly 150-foot section of Tennessee is already slated for closure in a future TDOT project to widen and realign Western Avenue. It is crossed by two railroad tracks with a difference in elevation of about eight feet between them. That has resulted, according to Gerdau Ameristeel’s application, to instances where large trucks have bottomed out in the dip causing ruptured fuel tanks and diesel fuel spills into part of Third Creek. MPC’s recommendation states the closing, “will not impede the function of the remainder of Tennessee Avenue through the neighborhood, and is expected to improve traffic safety” at the railroad crossing.

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