Thursday, April 09:
1:00pm-4:00pm - Tree Planting at 3rd Creek Greenway
Friday, April 10:
1:00pm-4:00pm - Tree Planting at Lay Avenue
Tuesday, April 14: 9am-2pm - High School Groups at Workshops
1:00pm-4:00pm - Tree Planting at Adair Park
Wednesday, April 15:
1:00pm-4:00pm – Tree Planting at James White Greenway
Knox Blount Greenway Phase I Project
This project will include the construction of approximately 9,500 linear feet of asphalt greenway along the Tennessee River, a gabion wall and two pedestrian bridges.
View Current Construction Status of Knox Blount Greenway Phase I Project [PDF]
The contractor, Charles Blalock and Sons, Inc. has received the
Notice to Proceed (NTP), with construction to begin Sept. 22nd.
Waterfront Drive will be a new 2-lane roadway (approximately
2,988 ft) that lies north of Langford Avenue between Barber
Street and Foggy Bottom Street. Construction will consists of
asphalt pavement, concrete sidewalk, concrete curb, underground
utility installation and drainage work. Other amenities
include landscaping, rip-rap, tree plantings, decorative street
lighting and site furnishings. The contractor will begin with the
installation of sanitary sewer. Most construction work performed
should have minimal impact to residents and local traffic.
The awarded contract amount is $3,246,294.
Ronald Franks Construction LLC has completed
construction of the Cityview Riverwalk
extension. The project completion
date was Sept. 30th. A final walk-through
was performed by TDOT and City Engineering
on Sept. 26th. As a result of the
meeting, the contractor has been provided
a list of items that are to be addressed,
and a timeline. An additional meeting may
be required in the spring to evaluate the
landscaping.
The new extension lengthens the existing
riverwalk with 300 feet of concrete riverwalk
with site furnishings (benches, trash
receptacle and lighting). A 325-foot asphalt
greenway connects the riverwalk to
Blount Avenue. Together, there is over a
quarter-mile of riverwalk and greenway
connection for pedestrians and bicyclists
to enjoy.
The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) aims to link West Knoxville and Knox County to Oak Ridge.
An additional 13.2 miles will join the more than 100 miles of paved greenway trails that already exist throughout the region.
It's a project that comes with an estimated price tag of $8.8 million.
The project will link three existing greenways: the Ten Mile Creek Greenway in West Knoxville and West Knox County, the Pellissippi Greenway in West Knox County and the Melton Lake Greenway in Oak Ridge.
Based on comments we received from our online surveys, there is a common question about why we're studying this greenway linkage and not others. We realize that there’s a desire for greenway connections all over the Knoxville Region.
The geography of this planning study was determined by the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Greenway Council, which co-sponsored the study, and was approved by the TPO. The Council’s focus is on making regional connections, so it is funding studies to link different cities and counties. Residents who want to know more about plans to link greenways within their communities are encouraged to contact their local government.
The panel suggests many bold ideas, including the following
overarching recommendations:
... ■ Extend Knoxville’s greenway connection north from
World’s Fair Park.
Corridor and Greenway Connections The city has made great strides to identify and address
connectivity within the downtown and the greater urban
area. Although topography and infrastructure create barriers
in certain situations, they also offer opportunities.
The greenway initiative is a healthy initiative that appears
to have broad appeal and support. Similarly, new initiatives
have led to public and private sector improvements
in some of the major connective corridors to downtown,
including Cumberland and Magnolia Avenues. In addition
to these, the panel has identified several areas that should
be addressed to further enhance connectivity between
downtown and adjacent areas. They include connections to
and with the western and eastern portions of the city, the
Tennessee River/Lake Loudon waterfront, and a Jackson
Avenue greenway connection.
To further enhance connectivity, the panel suggests completing the
greenway initiative and connecting Knoxville’s unique cultural and
recreational amenities to the city’s eastern and western portions, the
Tennessee River, and beyond.
Though numerous
recommendations are described throughout this report,
the panel believes the following are priority recommendations
for Knoxville to begin work on immediately to guarantee
Knoxville’s ongoing and future success:
Save the park and add a greenway circuit. Preserve the
vital urban green space represented by World’s Fair
Park, and extend the pedestrian and bicycle connections
it affords to ultimately connect from the university
by the river’s edge up the Second Creek valley, through
the park to West Jackson Avenue, Old City, across
James White Parkway to a redeveloped Mountain View
community, and back to the river and on to the South
Waterfront and Urban Wilderness south of the river.
| January 13, 2015 - It's the start of a new year - and 2015 will mark a major expansion of South Knoxville Waterfront redevelopment. Work is underway by road builder Charles Blalock & Sons on the new $3.2 million Waterfront Drive, a tree-lined direct access to the new five-acre Suttree Landing Park that also will be under construction this year. The new 2,988-foot-long two-lane street north of Langford Avenue will connect more than half a mile between Barber Street and Foggy Bottom Street. It will rim the southern edge of the new Suttree Landing Park. The road project includes asphalt pavement, 11-foot-wide lanes, concrete sidewalks and curbs, landscaping, tree plantings and decorative street lighting. The first phase of the park construction is going out to bid this month. Suttree Landing Park - the City's first major new park to open in a decade - will feature an event lawn, a river walk and river overlooks, a boat ramp and a playground. In a follow-up phase, restrooms and a boat house will be built. "The conceptualization, public input and planning for Waterfront Drive and Suttree Landing Park have been meticulous and thoughtful," said Dawn Michelle Foster, the City's Deputy Director of Redevelopment, who's headed up the projects. "Bids for the park construction will soon be solicited, and the road construction began last fall. Now that we're fully into the construction phases, it's exciting to see these great public amenities becoming a reality." Joe Walsh, the City's Director of Parks and Recreation, predicts the new park will be well-liked and widely used by South Knoxvillians. "It'll be a nice, aesthetically-pleasing park on the south side of the Tennessee River, and it'll be symmetrical with what's on the north side - Volunteer Landing and Ned McWherter Park," Walsh said. Also slated to be completed in spring 2015, a little over a mile southwest from Suttree Landing Park, is the newly redesigned entrance to Fort Dickerson Park off Chapman Highway. In addition to adding new landscaping, the $1 million Fort Dickerson Roadway Realignment Project will realign Fort Dickerson Road with Woodlawn Pike and includes about 475 feet of new two-lane road with sidewalk and signalization. |
| New Section of Third Creek Greenway Open |
| December 23, 2014 - A trail-rerouting project to alleviate frequent flooding on a stretch of the City's popular Third Creek Greenway has been completed - welcome news for the hundreds of daily runners, walkers and bicyclists who sometimes have had to endure soggy or muddy treks after a hard rain. The work from August to December never closed the greenway's older route near Tobler Lane in West Knoxville while the new 650-foot-long stretch of asphalt was being laid in a new bed on slightly higher ground. |
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| Another pleasant outcome: The project was completed entirely in-house by City of Knoxville employees, which saved taxpayers about $145,000, compared with the estimate from a private contractor. Peter Gerlach, the City's Construction Manager, determined that the new section of greenway could be designed and built by the City for much less money than it would have cost to pay a contractor - and he was right. The final bill was $80,000 - down from the original private estimate of $225,000. "It was a great project to work on," Gerlach said. "Because we did everything in-house, we had several crews working on various aspects of the job. Russ Richard and Rusty Matthews from the Engineering Department surveyed the site; Mark Wagner and I designed the culvert; Mark Jenks built the culvert; and Ed Warren and Dwayne Miley and his crew prepped the ground and laid the asphalt. "We had people on a daily basis stopping to tell us how much they appreciated what we were doing, and I know that really made our employees feel great, knowing they were improving a greenway that's so well-liked by so many people." |
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| One big problem: How to manage water runoff from a 60-inch drainage pipe running underneath the railroad tracks. Wagner, the City's Horticulture Manager, and Gerlach designed a special type of culvert to direct water into the creek. The design, called a high-flow/low-flow culvert, propels water through a continually narrowing pathway, resulting in a self-cleaning design. With the greenway shifting to higher ground, City crews will no longer have to clean up the mess left behind after heavy rains - another efficiency that allows Public Service Department staff to focus on other problem areas. During peak summer months, an estimated 2,500 people a week use the Tobler Lane section of Third Creek Greenway, according to Joe Walsh, the City's Parks and Recreation Director. "We've gotten complaints about the mud and flood debris on this section of Third Creek for years," Walsh said. "Third Creek is a very popular greenway, and we know that people who regularly bike, walk or run this trail will notice the improvements the first time there's a heavy rain - and they're no longer having to contend with the mud and silt that had regularly been washing onto the trail." |
Norman and nine other bike equity advocates are part of a new report on bicycle equity, released by PeopleForBikes and the Alliance for Biking & Walking. The reports — a bicycling participation report and an “idea book” for building equity in urban areas — use statistics and personal stories to show that poor communities and communities of color use bikes the most, but have some of the worst infrastructure around.
