Tennessee: Alcoa Highway Reconstruction

Tennessee’s Biggest Highway Project Has Seven Chapters

Challenge: As the cost of housing skyrockets, markets once thought of as secondary are booming with people searching for affordable places to live. This trend is acute in East Tennessee around Knoxville, where since 2016 the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) has been wrestling with its biggest highway project ever. Named for the aluminum manufacturing giant that once had a plant nearby, the congestion-plagued Alcoa Highway is a major connection between Knoxville and Alcoa and Maryville and provides a route to McGhee Tyson Airport and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. TDOT says that East Tennessee’s growth mandates this piece of transportation infrastructure keep pace, with increased capacity, wider highway width and slopes, and reduced accidents. The problem is that the Volunteer State is a “pay-as-you-go state,” so projects don’t move forward unless funding is secured. Construction has been split into several phases, according to TDOT.

Solution: Helping the 13-mile project along is a $123.7 million infusion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which will help fund widening the section on US-129 from Woodson Drive to Cherokee Trail from 4-Lanes to 6-Lanes. Because of its size, TDOT has split this project into seven segments, only two of which are finished.

What they’re saying: “I’ve seen a few really bad accidents here on Alcoa Highway since I’ve lived here so I think this is really going to help a lot,” one resident attending a community planning meeting told (WVLT-TV Channel 8, 09/28/2023).

Photo credit: TDOT