McAfee Road in Tusculum is now closed to through traffic Tusculum Mayor Alan Corley said during a Tusculum Board of Mayor and Commissioners meeting Monday night.
The road was closed to through traffic on April 13 according to Corley. He noted that the closure would be monitored, and any motorist attempting to drive off the road around the concrete barricade closing the road would be cited for traveling off-road onto private property in any attempt to pass by the barrier.
The Tusculum board unanimously approved a resolution in February that closed McAfee Road in Tusculum to through traffic, and converted the road to two dead-end streets for safety reasons.
McAfee Road is a narrow street making it difficult for cars to pass in opposite directions, and even more difficult for larger vehicles such as trucks to traverse, particularly on the western section of the street, which is completely residential in nature.
The eastern section of the road has no residences or businesses that connect to the street, and is located entirely on a portion of the former Greene Valley Developmental Center property owned by the Tusculum-Greeneville-Greene County Tennessee Industrial Development Board.
Some residents expressed concerns about potentially hazardous truck traffic on the residential road in March 2025 to the Greene Valley IDB, due to a new 120,000 square-foot Eternal Water bottling facility being placed in the now dubbed “Greene Valley Business Park.”
The action taken by the Tusculum Board essentially made the road a dead end street once it meets the IDB-owned property, and was aimed at preventing heavy truck traffic in the residential section of the street.
Traffic going to Greene Valley Business Park is being directed to use Edens Road for access. Vehicles are not able to access the Greene Valley Business Park from McAfee Road, neither are vehicles able to exit the business park using McAfee Road due to the closure.
Dead end and no outlet signs have been put up at each end of McAfee Road.
A gravel turn-around space has been provided on the residential side of blockage and is large enough for a school bus to use.
Two projects, including the bottling facility, are under construction on the locally owned property. Another part of the property will soon be the home of the new Greene County Health Department. Construction on the 12,000 square-foot facility, built with over $8 million of grant funding by Greene County, is set to be completed soon.
The water bottling plant, which will employ about 45 people, is also expected to open this summer.
A total of 335 acres of undeveloped land south of Edens Road at the former developmental center site is now under the control of the local IDB.
The front of the property, which runs along U.S. Highway 11E is still under the control of the state of Tennessee. A new regional Department of Disability and Aging headquarters and a Tennessee College of Applied Technology are being constructed on the state-owned property. Those facilities are also slated to be completed this summer, with the TCAT planning to accept students this fall.
