MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The City of Memphis announced on Wednesday commuters heading downtown will have to take detours for an entire month. Riverside Drive will be closed starting on Thursday, April 23 and will not reopen until May 25. “I can’t imagine it being a huge problem for one month. But it might be nice for the whole month of May to create pedestrian traffic and encourage people to walk downtown more,” said Connor Nickell. While it may be inconvenient for some drivers, the closures were scheduled to ensure safety for Memphis in May events and to finish the construction needed to return the road to four-lane traffic in June. They were reduced to just two lanes last year to attract bikers and pedestrians before the mayor reversed the plan. Still, there was concern about Riverside being closed for a month. “Well, it’s going to cause a lot of problems; traffic, people who want to walk on the river.  It’s going to cause a lot of problems,” said Jarvis Sewell. The closure sparked another question. Some wondered if it was the right time, especially with Bass Pro scheduled to open inside the Pyramid. “Memphis in May is a tradition, and we know that this typically happens, but now we’re going to infringe upon Bass Pro because the main entrance of Bass Pro is right off Riverside Drive,” said City Council member Berlin Boyd. Boyd said he didn’t want visitors to take a detour from attending Bass Pro’s long awaited grand opening next week. “This is an opportunity for Memphis to shine and  you want to control the flow of traffic and anytime you have a great tourist attraction like the Bass Prop store in the Memphis Pyramid. I think it’s definitely going to create traffic jams,” he said. Also scheduled to be closed: Beale Street from Wagner Place to Front Street, and Wagner Place from Beale Street to Linden Avenue. April 23 – May 4 May 9 – May 17 May 22 -May 25