Knoxville's $11 million expansion set for the State Street Garage will begin next month.
Crews will start with preliminary work and then in the first week of October, the first steps of adding two parking decks and 570 new parking spaces will get underway.
A crane will be positioned on Central Street so the section of the road east of the garage will be completely closed.
The phase of work will wind down just before the December holidays, according to a release from the city.
Central Street will reopen in January and the crane will be moved to the west side of the garage and close at least one lane of State Street.
The garage expansion is expected to be finished by June 2019. The city said it believes throughout the nine months of construction, the biggest impact will be on parkers using the garage.
Starting the first week of October, construction will take slightly more than half the garage’s current 1,082 spaces out of use; 528 spaces will remain in use.
“We know that people who live and work downtown, as well as visitors who come to see a movie or a concert, will be inconvenienced,” Emmett said. “The City and the Public Building Authority have done our best to try and minimize the inconvenience.
The number of open spaces will fluctuate throughout the project.
The city and Public Building Authority have partnered with the Tennessee Valley Authority to get a temporary licensing agreement involving the Summer Place Garage on W. Summit Hill Drive, according to a release. The monthly parkers will be able to park there and can return to the State Street Garage when the expansion is finished.
“We hope people understand that this is a temporary, unavoidable hassle and that, in the long term, we’re adding more parking to better serve visitors, residents and workers as our downtown continues to grow and blossom,” Emmett said.
The city said if the daytime monthly parkers choose to not park in Summer Place, another option would be parking at the Civic Coliseum Garage where the monthly parking fee is $15, with free Knoxville Area Transit trolley service from the garage to points throughout downtown.
A phone app and website will be set up before the State Street Garage work commences, according to the city. It will inform motorists where real-time parking is available in City-owned garages.
When that technology is in place, the city will announce the specific details.
Essentially, it will allow people approaching the garage to see a digital display showing the number of available parking spaces at that minute. The city installed sensors that count available parking spaces in real time in the Market Street Garage a year ago. The same system is being installed at the State Street, Locust Street, and Main Street garages.