Cumberland Ave Project - Tailgate Questions

[Volunteer08]

This is kind of off-topic, but has to do with tailgating for football so I'll leave it here...

1) Does anyone have pictures of the work done on Cumberland Avenue? The pictures on CumberlandConnect's site aren't great.

2) How does it affect the flow of traffic in the area? What do you expect gamedays will be like?

3) Did the stores/bars/restaurants get a face lift or was it strictly road/sidwalk construction? Any new businesses?

4) Did they bury the 1000+ wires/lines going from business to business back and forth across the road?

Any info would be great! TIA!

 

[OrangeByBirth]

2. Left turn lanes, elevated medians, and wider sidewalks should improve both traffic and people moving.
3. Some facelifts and some new store fronts. Did not see new businesses but was not looking either.
4. Yes

 

[Benchwarmer]

I don't have any photos, but Cumberland--the street-- will definitely be prettier to look at. Kudos for the streetscape design. The storefronts all look the same as before, except they are replacing First Tennessee Bank with a new building.

I'm not sure traffic flow will be much better. Guess we'll find out.

Also, the new student center is coming along, and it looks mighty impressive to me. Makes me wish I was a student again.

 

[volspeach]

http://www.cumberlandconnect.com/

 

[Volunteer08]

http://www.cumberlandconnect.com/

Not sure why I didn't think to look there first!?

Thanks everyone else!

 

[UT_Tix79]

They've turned it into one lane both directions with medians and turn lanes. It's going to suck pretty badly on game days.

It looks much prettier, but it's not really conducive to mass amounts of vehicles.

We drove on it the other day, and my wife said, "this looks great, but they didn't really do this for gameday, we need to find a better way to games, it's gonna be a nightmare"

 

[madbamahater]

They've turned it into one lane both directions with medians and turn lanes. It's going to suck pretty badly on game days.

It looks much prettier, but it's not really conducive to mass amounts of vehicles.

We drove on it the other day, and my wife said, "this looks great, but they didn't really do this for gameday, we need to find a better way to games, it's gonna be a nightmare"

The only place other than Nashville for perpetual road construction.......Knoxville......

 

[Roustabout]

I don't have any photos, but Cumberland--the street-- will definitely be prettier to look at. Kudos for the streetscape design. The storefronts all look the same as before, except they are replacing First Tennessee Bank with a new building.

I'm not sure traffic flow will be much better. Guess we'll find out.

Also, the new student center is coming along, and it looks mighty impressive to me. Makes me wish I was a student again.

It's a shame the city didn't pass a sign and facade ordinace along with this investment. Cumberland has been a dump for too long.

 

[river rat]

It looks much prettier, but it's not really conducive to mass amounts of vehicles.

That's the point of the design. They wanted it to be more pedestrian friendly. Not sure where the vehicle traffic is supposed to go. Neyland Dr. and Volunteer Blvd., I guess?

 

[Roustabout]

That's the point of the design. They wanted it to be more pedestrian friendly. Not sure where the vehicle traffic is supposed to go. Neyland Dr. and Volunteer Blvd., I guess?

Much of the traffic issue on Cumberland came from lack of turning lanes. It should actually help traffic flow. But, Cumberland isn't equipped to be a thoroughfare.

They should have added a pedestrian bridge.

 

[davethevol]

Much of the traffic issue on Cumberland came from lack of turning lanes. It should actually help traffic flow. But, Cumberland isn't equipped to be a thoroughfare.

They should have added a pedestrian bridge.

The McDonald's owner on Cumberland pointed out that the turnlanes can only hold like 3 cars at a time. What happens when there's a 4th car or a delivery truck added to the equation? Most likely it will be just as congested or even worse.

 

[volfaninky]

I don't think they design a road for 6-7 days a year when there is 358 more to use it. Just my two cents.

 

[Orange&White]

I met the guy who led the design behind the Cumberland project at a seminar. As mentioned to earlier, Cumberland was never meant to hold as much traffic as it does, therefore they are purposefully trying to reduce the traffic flow in order to promote higher foot traffic. I think they could care less about the convenience of people driving through Cumberland, they just want it to look nice and be full of people.

I know a specific problem Cumberland faced was after football season a lot of business struggled to make it since there was little foot traffic in that area. That is why the project has included a hotel, 4 apartment complexes, and new store fronts in an attempt to attract people to live and stay in that area. The project intends to make Cumberland an urban oasis with trees, restaurants, and stores. I imagine game days will be hectic until people realize this and start finding alternate routes. Regardless, I think it will look very nice when completed and fix the eyesore that Cumberland was for many many years.

 

[VFL10]

I met the guy who led the design behind the Cumberland project at a seminar. As mentioned to earlier, Cumberland was never meant to hold as much traffic as it does, therefore they are purposefully trying to reduce the traffic flow in order to promote higher foot traffic. I think they could care less about the convenience of people driving through Cumberland, they just want it to look nice and be full of people.

I know a specific problem Cumberland faced was after football season a lot of business struggled to make it since there was little foot traffic in that area. That is why the project has included a hotel, 4 apartment complexes, and new store fronts in an attempt to attract people to live and stay in that area. The project intends to make Cumberland an urban oasis with trees, restaurants, and stores. I imagine game days will be hectic until people realize this and start finding alternate routes. Regardless, I think it will look very nice when completed and fix the eyesore that Cumberland was for many many years.

Yeah this is why Buffalo Wild Wings left the strip back when I was in school. Just did not have the foot traffic to sustain post football season. I can't wait to see what the New Cumberland Strip looks like, especially on gamedays. I always thought the potential for the strip was high if they would just update it and make it more modern which is what they seemed to have done. Hopefully, this becomes more of a destination now!

 

[savannahfan]

To make this street or any old street better for today's traffic you must make it wider. To make any old sidewalk handle more people (and handicap ability) it will need to be wider. To make all these things wider, you will need to have property from business fronts. Many of them couldn't accommodate this, so they would need to morph into something else or close. But you would be able to make life easer on for those not wanting to be inconvenienced in anyway. Wonder how this is tolerated at other places with this problem. (Auburn, where the trees were, Ole Miss with their "park" atmosphere and so on: like many schools deal with)

 

[vavolfan6]

The area will undoubtley be nice to look at while sitting in traffic! Businesses are less accessible by car already as left turns are harder and more frustrating to make.

I wish there were more room for public parking. Otherwise the only ones benefiting from the landscape change are the ones who actually live on campus or in Fort Sanders.

 

[jwells]

The area will undoubtley be nice to look at while sitting in traffic! Businesses are less accessible by car already as left turns are harder and more frustrating to make.

I wish there were more room for public parking. Otherwise the only ones benefiting from the landscape change are the ones who actually live on campus or in Fort Sanders.

How are left turns more difficult? Crossing two lanes of traffic, each having varied speed is hectic and dangerous.

 

[Roustabout]

Had to run an errand and took Cumberland. The aesthetics will be much better. Still a lot of crummy looking store fronts. The city really needs to set some standards there.

Traffic was Ok during lunch. Game day? Forget it.

 

[Thrasher865]

It's a shame the city didn't pass a sign and facade ordinace along with this investment. Cumberland has been a dump for too long.

Had to run an errand and took Cumberland. The aesthetics will be much better. Still a lot of crummy looking store fronts. The city really needs to set some standards there.

Traffic was Ok during lunch. Game day? Forget it.

https://www.municode.com/webcontent/knoxvilletn/42_CumberlandCorridorDistrict.pdf

 

[Probably_in_Class]

The area will undoubtley be nice to look at while sitting in traffic! Businesses are less accessible by car already as left turns are harder and more frustrating to make.

I wish there were more room for public parking. Otherwise the only ones benefiting from the landscape change are the ones who actually live on campus or in Fort Sanders.

Ya, improving the visuals of a street that's essentially in existence for the school "only" for students is really unfortunate...

 

[Volunteer08]

Odd ask, but...anyone mind snapping a few pictures next time you pass through?

 

[aftermidnight]

4) Did they bury the 1000+ wires/lines going from business to business back and forth across the road?

Actually, they didn't bury the lines. A lot of people think they did, but they actually just moved them off of Cumberland and into the alley areas behind Cumberland. They did a pretty good job "hiding" them back there. I followed the project pretty religiously from start to finish. The concept of reducing the number of lanes is called a "road diet," and I think it will be much better for the area as there should be fewer crashes and it should be safer for pedestrians. The official ribbon cutting is 8/17, and I'm sure there will be a lot of pictures then. They are still working on the landscaping though. They are going to have to wait until it cools off (likely October) before they install the trees, which will make a huge difference in the overall aesthetic.

 

[Thrasher865]

Actually, they didn't bury the lines. A lot of people think they did, but they actually just moved them off of Cumberland and into the alley areas behind Cumberland. They did a pretty good job "hiding" them back there.

All utilities were relocated to underground duct banks underneath the sidewalks. That was Phase I of the project.

 

[TNnative]

The only place other than Nashville for perpetual road construction.......Knoxville......

Maybe, but Cumberland has been cobbled together with band aid repairs with no real master plan for 40 years at least.

And I bet plenty of folk from Chattanooga have a counterpoint. Ive never gone through there without passing way too many well weathered traffic cones.

 

[TNnative]

Had to run an errand and took Cumberland. The aesthetics will be much better. Still a lot of crummy looking store fronts. The city really needs to set some standards there.

Traffic was Ok during lunch. Game day? Forget it.

If this is a 2 phase project, what you mentioned will be the unofficial but not so subtly implied phase 3. Kind of like how the Old City changed in the late 80s. I remembered when one of the few open businesses was Big Don's elegant junk. If they could make something out of that eyesore, Cumberland can be a showplace.