President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden ride in the motorcade from the White House to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., on July 21, 2010, to sign the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)
There will be some traffic delays in Anderson County on Friday because the presidential motorcade will be traveling through the county, including the cities of Oak Ridge and Clinton, authorities said.
But the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department said it cannot release the times, the motorcade route, or the duration of the traffic delays.
“We also cannot release any other information concerning this event,” the Sheriff’s Department said.
The City of Oak Ridge also announced Thursday that traffic in Oak Ridge could be disrupted during the Friday afternoon visit to west Knox County and Clinton by President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Biden’s wife Jill.
But the city also could not provide more information, including on routes and possible road closures, presumably for security reasons.
The president, vice president, and vice president’s wife are visiting Pellissippi State Community College in the Hardin Valley area in west Knox County and Techmer PM in Clinton.
Schools in Clinton and Anderson County announced this week that they will close early on Friday so buses can miss the traffic congestion and closed roads that are expected during the presidential visit.
On Wednesday, Dan Pfeiffer, an assistant to the president and senior adviser, said Obama will launch a new manufacturing innovation hub during the visit, his first to the Knoxville area in his six years as president.
The manufacturing innovation hub will be a private-sector partnership that will attract more well-paying middle-class jobs in high-tech manufacturing to Tennessee, Pfeiffer said.
Obama is also expected to propose ways to help more young Americans go to college and get ahead.
Pfeiffer said the president is doing something he’s never done before: laying out some of his State of the Union message and policies ahead of his address to Congress on January 20.
Obama has been to Tennessee before, including in a Nashville stop in December.
Friday’s stop in East Tennessee is part of a week-long, cross-country tour to promote presidential policies on housing, economic development, and education. The president also plans trips to Detroit (Wayne, Michigan) and Phoenix this week before ending his week in Tennessee.
