MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Maneuvering the streets of Downtown Memphis: Have you tried it lately? It’s tough, and it’s not just the traffic.
It’s the construction, and if you plan to hit Front Street anytime soon, you need to pack your patience.
From Union Avenue to the A.W. Willis Bridge, construction barrels, construction cones and construction workers block lanes.
Alexandra Mobley told WREG she makes the trek everyday working downtown.
“It is a nightmare getting to the office, so I go Second Street and around or Third Street, Fourth Street,” Mobley said. “I just avoid Front Street now til its done.”
The city sent out an alert about this last month, warning drivers to find another route.
They said repaving and upgrading curb ramps would take two or three weeks.
“I will be glad when it is finished because it really needed to be done,” Mobley said.
Over on Main Street things are just as busy as upgrades are made to the trolley tracks.
At first glance it might look as though the tracks are gone, but construction workers said that`s just phase one.
“It’s gonna be clean and neat and a lot flatter and smoother surfaces, and the trolleys will kind of disappear in effect into the asphalt,” William Welch with Zellner Construction said.
When all is done, the street will be a lot smoother and have crosswalks for pedestrians.
There will still be the trolley tracks for when the trolley returns, which MATA said will happen.
Visitors, who have been told to tour the city via the trolley, can`t wait.
“Yeah, we are just seeing another part of Memphis that we never knew existed once we started walking,” Paula Sparks, a tourist from Atlanta, said. “So it would have been great to do a little of bit of touring on the trolley. That would have been fun.”
The road to progress is paved with a lot of construction.
The work on the trolley tracks is expected to continue through the fall.
Front Street construction could wrap up in the next week or two.