With five weeks left until the NFL Draft, the transformation of downtown Nashville is underway.
On Thursday, crews removed the dirt in the island mound at the end of Lower Broadway, filling it with gravel for the base of the main stage.
“This will be the largest single-day event in the history of the city, for sure, so the magnitude of the set-up of the stage, the tents, the amount of equipment here surpasses anything that’s been here before,” said David Spencer, V.P. of Events at the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation.
Spencer said the work will ramp up on April 5th when the production company comes in.
“That’s when you’ll start to see all the equipment showing up,” said Spencer.
There are also going to be changes made to traffic signals.
Days before April 5th, the traffic lights on Broadway and 1st Ave. are going to come down to make way for the main stage and in its place, three-way stop signs.
The traffic light at 2nd Ave. and Broadway will also be taken down.
Just across the river at Nissan Stadium is where the Draft Experience will be and in the next few days, the grass there will be seeded to make sure it’s healthy and green.
With all the foot traffic that’ll come from the Pedestrian Bridge, crews will be power washing it next Tuesday.
The following week on April 5th, street closures will begin, starting by the main stage.
“It will initially start on 1st Ave. from Church St. down to Demonbreun and Broadway from 1st to 2nd, and then there’s a layered phase approach to add streets over time,” said Spencer.
Full closure list: https://www.visitmusiccity.com/nfldraft/nfldraft-road-closures
The roads are set to re-open as soon as midnight Sunday, just hours after the final day of picks.