For years there has been discussion on how to make Alcoa Highway a safe road. There is very little control of development along Alcoa Highway from the airport north to Singleton Station Road. There are too many accesses to/from the highway and too many crossovers. It is hard to determine who has control over development, e.g. City of Alcoa, Tenn. Department of Transportation (TDOT), or some other entity.

A frontage road next to Alcoa Highway has gradually been developed to enable access to the many businesses without having to use Alcoa Highway. The current frontage road goes from Starbucks to the Krystal restaurant. When the El Sazon restaurant moved into the old BelAir Grill building, the lot was modified to extend the frontage road.

When Ruby Tuesday built a new restaurant across from Starbucks, it was a surprise that no frontage road was included. Currently Clayton Bank’s new building is going up next to Ruby Tuesday. This new facility appears to be closer to Alcoa Highway than Ruby Tuesday, leaving no room for expansion of Alcoa Highway or a frontage road. There was plenty of room at the back of the lot to build and still be visible. Ruby Tuesday and Clayton are excellent corporate citizens in Blount County. I appreciate their support of our community. Road planning is not their responsibility.

Ruby Tuesday, Courtyard by Marriott hotel, and Clayton Bank are only accessible from Alcoa Highway. If things were planned better these businesses could be accessed from Cusick Road or Payne Avenue could be extended through to Hunt Road. It would appear that the entities controlling development along Alcoa Highway are not looking to the future, nor managing development for the immediate needs along the highway.

Alcoa Highway has not been widened in over 40 years. Whether it be an option to have a frontage road along the entire length of Alcoa Highway or to widen the highway, new business should be planned around either option.

There is no definitive plan to build a bypass around Alcoa Highway. Hopefully a bypass will never come to fruition. Therefore, the City of Alcoa and TDOT should be managing development to allow for a safe Alcoa Highway now, not twenty years from now. Businesses should be required to build in a manner that allows for a continuance of the existing frontage road and/or widening of the existing Alcoa Highway.

Be aware of possible traffic delays on Alcoa Highway at the south bound Hunt Road exit, just south of the airport. TDOT is widening the decelaration lane to access Hunt Road from Alcoa Highway. According to a TDOT spokesman, the project will be complete in about a month.

CAPPE (Citizens Against Pellissippi Parkway Extension) is holding their annual meeting Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012, at 1:30PM.

Blount County Public Library
Dorothy Herron Room A
Sunday, February 26, 2012
1:30 PM to 4:00 PM

CAPPE’s Annual Meeting is your opportunity to make your views known, learn about our plans for the year, and elect Board members. This is the first time we have held the Annual Meeting on a Sunday afternoon.

The program this year has an additional purpose: after our Annual Meeting adjourns, we are hosting the PlanET workshop on strengths and challenges facing our community.

PlanET is a 3-year regional planning initiative that aims to “develop a Regional Plan for Livable Communities, develop regional capacity to improve the quality of life for the residents of this region, and create and implement an ambitious regionwide, multi-jurisdictional plan that will integrate economic development, environment, infrastructure and public health elements in a comprehensive manner to address area needs.” The counties participating in PlanET are Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon, and Union

John Lamb, Blount County Planner, will lead the workshop, during which each participant will have opportunities to identify major assets and challenges for our region. The results of our workshop will be combined by the PlanET staff with the results of other workshops to develop proposals for the future of our region.

CAPPE (Citizens Against Pellisippi Parkway Extension) are holding their 10th annual ChiliFest Saturday, February 4, 2012.

Stovall Family Life Center beside First Church of the Nazarene
1608 E. Broadway, Maryville (near 5 points on Old Knoxville Hwy/Maryville Pike, next to Amburns Humdinger Drive-In Restaurant).
4 PM to 6:30PM

This is both a contest for prizes in four categories (beef, other meats and vegetarian chili) and a community tasting event.

The event begins at 4pm, with tasting and judging continuing until the winners are announced at 6:00pm. In addition to the different chilis and a variety of beverages, tortillas and quesadillas will be available along with a bake sale of delicious home-made treats. Everyone will be eligible to win door prizes.

Suggested donation for admission is $7 at the door (children under 10 admitted free). Admission includes tastes of entries, one bowl of chili and one vote for the People's Choice winner.

For more information, call Mike Cook, CAPPE President 984 9003 or Susan Keller 982 4267.

Keep up-to-date on the latest at FixAlcoaHighway.

KNS Guest Editorial, Alcoa Highway bypass: Bad process leads to bad project

MDT Letter to Editor, Alcoa bypass is not a good solution

The Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Carolina State Universtiy is looking for participants to contribute opinions on the new Double Crossover Diamond (diverging diamond) intersection at Bessemer and Middlesettments Roads.

This is the new road that goes under the US 129 bypass to/from K-Mart to Lowe's (or wherever).

The institute is trying to assess the operation and safety of the new intersection.

The meeting will be held at the City of Alcoa Service Center (not the Administration building off Hall Road). The City of Alcoa Service Center is located at:

725 Universal Street (off of Wright Road)

Take Springbrook Road, past the pool, past the duck pond, past the school. Take a left on Edison/Wright Road. The City of Alcoa Service Center will be on the right.

The institute has requested interested participants to contact Jessica Smith at jsmith9@ncsu.edu or 919-515-8895. They said the deadline for participation was Thursday, June 16, but I contacted her yesterday, June 19th, and she said I was welcome to attend.

What a great turnout for such a short notice. The citizens have spoken and they said no. Is anyone listening?

Go to StopAlcoaParkway.com for a short update with more to come.

A public hearing is schedule at the Alcoa Service Center on November 9, 2010, from 5 PM to 7 PM.

Alcoa Service Center
725 Universal Street
Alcoa, TN 37701
865-380-4800

Please come and be a part of the process. We do not need a new, 5-6 lane interstate to run through the heart of Alcoa to give commuters a 3.1 mile respite from Alcoa Hwy. It will take away a lot of green space and bring noise and air pollution closer to one of Alcoa's most historical neighborhoods. This "parkway"s is intended to allow commuters a speedy, but very short path to a sudden stop on Hall Road or the 129 by-pass where there is a stop light.

Just what the hard working, middle-class citizens of Alcoa need, more traffic noise and pollution. How about it if we encourage planned development with continued greenspace requirements and managed roads without an interstate through Alcoa.

The 2007 estimated cost for this "parkway" is over $64 million, whereas the redesign of this section of Alcoa Highway with better turn lanes and traffic signals is approximately 1/2 million dollars. What a waste of taxpayer money. A better solution would be a completion of the frontage roads, with one or more better accesses to cross the highway, e.g. Wright Road and/or Airport Road, removal of the majority of the turn lanes in the center of the highway, with a better design for traffic flow and access.

Directions: The Alcoa Service Center is fairly new and may not show up on your maps. Take Hunt Road to Springbrook Road. On Springbrook Road go past the park, past the pool and school, and past the duck pond. Just past the duck pond is a 4 way intersection. Take a left (onto Edison Street/Wright Road, it has two names) and you will see the new Alcoa Service Center on the right. Go to the main entrance, e.g. Universal Street.

CORRECTION: The "1/2 million dollars" quoted above is a typo. The correct figure is $1.2 million according Knox TPO documents.

We attended the TDOT meeting yesterday regarding the DEIS report. There was a large turnout, with, it appeared, half of the attendees in opposition to the PPE.

Twenty citizens of the community were able to speak and give their comments as to why the PPE should not (or should) be completed. Nineteen of the twenty citizens were opposed to the completion of the PPE. The citizen speakers did a very good job, many with facts, figures, and reasonable arguments as to why the PPE should not be completed. The one gentleman who spoke as a proponent for the PPE seemed to be just giving up, if you're going to do it, just do it, he said.

Kudos to Nina Gregg for her hard work and persistence.

Go to KnoxViews for the full report.

Once again there is discussion of building an "Alcoa Parkway" to allow drivers to avoid a 3 1/2 mile section of Alcoa Highway. The 2007 estimated cost for this "parkway" is over $64 million, whereas the redesign of this section of Alcoa Highway with better turn lanes and traffic signals is approximately 1/2 million dollars.

Do we really need to pave Alcoa? Do we really need a 5 mile 6 lane interstate through Alcoa? Oh, my bad, it is a "parkway". Doesn't that sound pleasant?

There is no need to make Alcoa a parking lot so commuters can go 3 1/2 miles very quickly only to be stopped by the traffic light managed Hall Road (35 mph) or Alcoa Hwy bypass (US 129/State Road 133).

I'm pretty sure travelers can find the new "Downtown Alcoa" without this 6 lane albatross. Wouldn't it be nice if the section of Alcoa Highway from Singleton Station Road to Hunt Road/Hall Road was made a well managed boulevard? How long does it now take to get from Singleton Station Road to Hunt Road/Hall Road? 2-3 minutes? Okay, so there have been frequent accidents on Alcoa Highway, wouldn't it be more beneficial to redesign the existing road (better managed access) than to pave Alcoa to avoid this minor stretch of road?

Have you seen the section of Alcoa they are planning to pave? Lots of green space, including a golf course. The new "parkway" will be on the edge of the most historical neighborhood and park in the City of Alcoa, Springbrook. Won't that be pleasant? Just what those hard working, middle-class citizens need, more traffic noise and pollution. How about it if we encourage planned development with continued greenspace requirements and managed roads without an interstate through Alcoa.

Let's think about this people. Are you with me? We do not need the "Alcoa Parkway".

What are your thoughts?

A new hotel is being built at the intersection of Singleton Station Road and Alcoa Hwy. This is a very dangerous intersection. Will they provide customers with a warning, Do Not Turn Left on Alcoa Highway?

What were they thinking? Don't they care about visitors to the area?

CAPPE (Citizens Against the Pellissippi Parkway Extension, Inc.) members are preparing for the upcoming TDOT meeting on October 25 at Heritage High School from 5-8pm. For initial analysis, see below. For background, see (link...)

Also worth noting is that TDOT gave less than 3 weeks notice for this meeting, in violation of their own policy to provide 30 days notice for all public meetings. See (link...)

At the Oct. 25 meeting TDOT will present the ‘Purpose and Need’ for the PPE as well as ‘initial alternatives.’ The public will have opportunities to comment on the Purpose and Need and the alternatives. Written comments can be sent to TDOT for 21 days after the Oct. 25 meeting.