Improvements coming to Stone/Clinchfield intersection

The City of Kingsport has awarded the bid for a signal reconstruction project at one of the busiest intersections in town.

Work is scheduled to begin later this summer at the intersection of Stone Drive and Clinchfield Street. Currently, traffic signals hang on cables that are stretched across all four approaches of the intersection. The signals are more than 30 years old and are at the end of their lifecycle.

The project calls for the removal of the wires and poles and in their place will go two mast arms with new traffic signals attached. One signal pole will be located on the southeast corner of the intersection and the other on the northwest corner.

The intersection will look similar to the recently upgraded one at Memorial Boulevard and Fort Henry Drive, said Jim Hensley, traffic manager for the City of Kingsport.

“The mast arms will go diagonally across the intersection, the wires will be removed and everything going out to the signals will be going underground,” Hensley said. “It’ll be a much cleaner intersection and should look really good.”

Kingsport recently awarded the $288,000 project to Stansell Electric. In addition to new signals and mast arms, the project calls for a camera detection system instead of loops in the roadway, and pedestrian push buttons and crosswalks across Bloomingdale Pike on the north and Stone Drive on the west.

“This project connects all of the sidewalks together for safe passage from Clinchfield across Stone to Bloomingdale,” Hensley said.

Work is expected to begin this summer and take approximately 120 days to complete. The project is fully funded by the City of Kingsport.