ALCOA, Tenn. — The Tennessee Department of Transportation said it plans to build a new, re-located Alcoa Highway between Hall Road and South Singleton Station Road, past the exit for Pellissippi Parkway.
Crews are working on the portion between Hall Road and McGhee-Tyson Airport, and TDOT expects it to finish by this summer.
Plans for the re-located Alcoa Highway include greenways around Hunt Road, Wright Road and Cusick Road, according to the TDOT website.
A group of UT Students worked on a project in the Fall of 2021 to make Alcoa Highway more friendly to multi-modal transportation, such as bikes and pedestrians.
Because the Civil Engineering students were not licensed, TDOT and the city of Alcoa couldn't use their designs, but they could use their research and data.
"They do pick points of projects that they might be able to incorporate into the actual finished design," said Josue Garduno, one of the UT students.
The students created a plan to build a greenway on the existing portion of Alcoa Highway. They conducted traffic studies and researched ideas for slowing traffic along the greenways.
Their plan would add a bike lane and a sidewalk for pedestrians along the highway.
"Since there are fewer vehicles going through there, we propose taking that section of roadway and adding sidewalks and greenways," said Jimmy Albert, one of the team members.
"The increase in pedestrian and bicycle access would really help the businesses," said Garduno.
The students worked on this for their Senior Design projects. UT's engineering school said it's to give the students hands-on experience on a real-world problem.
TDOT said they work with UT students often.