Sevierville receives $423,833 for Phase II of greenway system

Sevierville has received a $423,833 grant from the state for finishing its currently planned greenway system. This money will be used for a greenway connecting the Eastgate area to the LeConte Medical Center. Downtown Sevierville will be connected to Pigeon Forge. The Mountain Press report is located here. More details are available to print subscribers. The governor's office announcement is located here. Does anyone have additional data on the length of the greenway, and/or a map of where the greenway will go?

Proposed Concord Road (SR-332) Project

The Farragut Press Enterprise is reporting that the proposal to widen Concord Rd (west end of SR-332) from Turkey Creek Rd to Northshore Dr is running into opposition. The road would go from two lanes to five, with bike lanes and a sidewalk on one side of the street. A asphalt greenway would line the other side. Opponents of the project have raised objections over the amount of land (and a home) that would have to be taken. In addition, there is the argument that development in the area has come to a standstill, and that the widened road would end at two lane Northshore Dr, which is arguably a busier road.

The west (actually north) end of the proposed project (going beyond Turkey Creek Rd) has previously been widened to include sidewalks on both sides, but no bike lanes, and has a 40 mph speed limit. The stretch in question currently has a 30 mph speed limit, but has no sidewalks, bikelanes, or parallel greenways. Many drivers exceed the 30 mph limit there. Certainly sidewalks would provide a means for people living in the area to more readily walk to the rest of town, including other neighborhoods, Kroger Marketplace, The Little Gym, and beyond. The bike lanes unfortunately would not extend past Turkey Creek Rd, although the road itself is actually quite ride friendly due to the presence of two lanes on each side.

Would going from two lanes to five (with probable higher speeds) be better or worse for cyclists? As previously mentioned, sidewalks would benefit pedestrians. Long term plans call for a greenway paralleling Northshore Dr to improve connectivity throughout the area. In this era of tightened budgets, could improvements short of going to five lanes be made that would not be so expensive and potentially disruptive?

Knoxville Third Creek/Neyland Greenway signs

(Sign images are adapted from the Manual of Traffic Signs, by Richard C. Moeur)

This past weekend when I went through Knoxville's Third Creek and Neyland Greenways, I noticed that the Neyland Greenway had its old "cross traffic does not stop" signs replaced with the much more straightforward yield signs. Portions of Neyland Greenway runs parallel to Neyland Drive, and turning traffic from Neyland Drive will cross the greenway. As previously mentioned, parallel paths to roads have a problem with intersections, in that turning traffic has a conflict with path traffic. The yield signs remind greenway users to the fact that at every such intersection they are to yield to any turning traffic for their safety. Fortunately, the number of intersections is not large, so the number of yields is manageable.

At the Third Creek Greenway. there is a partial detour due to a KUB (Knoxville Utilities Board) project. There, I saw the new combo Bike/Ped sign with a "Share the Road" supplemental for the first time when the greenway was detoured onto sparsely used service roads of the University.

Classes of bicycle facilities

Yesterday's blog post described the changes in Congress as well as how Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA-52) mentioned in an interview about how he felt cycling is more of a recreational rather than a transportation thing. (As a side note, this Rep. Hunter is the successor of long-term and probably better known Rep. Duncan Hunter.)

Yes, it is true that a good deal of cycling is done for recreational purposes. But a good deal of cycling is also done for transportation, due to its convenience and low price, in addition to the built-in exercise. One who rides for transportation gets a workout just by going where one was going anyway. A variety of facilities exist, and facilities can be classified into three classes.

Future Concord Rd expansion plans

A further development in terms of infrastructure construction in Knox County and the town of Farragut is detailed here. Basically, starting three years from now, Concord Rd will be widened from two lanes to five, with bike lanes and a sidewalk on one side and an extra wide trail on the other. The "median islands" mentioned are a recent development, in that studies have shown some downside to having a continuous center-turn lane. A new bridge will be built to feed into the roundabout at Northshore Drive. A greenway paralleling Northshore Drive will be built on its north side. (Since much of Northshore drive has few intersections, the greenway should be OK for cycling.)

For what it's worth, proposed Concord Rd expansion was previously held up as part of transportation spending rescissions. As such, it's difficult to project what the funding situation will be three years from now, which is the scheduled start of construction. To what extent traffic levels will require a five lane road is another question.

Pedestrian bridge over Alcoa Hwy under construction

According to the Knoxville News Sentinel a bridge connecting greenways on both sides of Alcoa Hwy (US-129) was put into place Sunday. Plans call for the bridge to be opened in early December.

Alcoa Highway is a high-speed road that's notorious for car crashes, and having a way to safety cross it is an improvement. Perhaps more importantly is the fact that neighborhoods will be linked to the Blount County greenway system that were previously separated by the road. For transportation infrastructure to be functional and useful, they have to go to enough places that people want to go; network breaks are highly destructive. Hopefully we have just eliminated one such break in the network.

Congrats to Board Member Dan Reese

Good news! I've been hired as Project Manager for the RR Depot preservation/greenway trail head project here in Johnson City. I'll be riding my bike six blocks to work every day, and getting paid to put an old facility into good use. Guess this is what its like to be Anthony Siracusa on the road...
Dan

Greenway & Trails Newsletter

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