Last September, stakeholders at a well-attended public meeting discussed the latest draft of a $17 million plan to improve traffic flow and safety along the Washington Pike corridor inside the northeastern City limits, between Interstate 640 and Murphy Road. 

It was the third City-convened community meeting on the project in 2021. At each juncture, residents’ suggestions were heard, evaluated and incorporated into the plan, if supported by data and engineering best practices.

The proposed road redesign adds turn lanes and corrects accident-prone intersections, but it also creates – for the first time – wide bicycle and pedestrian paths and a park-like environmentally-friendly planting design.

With construction scheduled to begin in about two years, the City and its design team are inviting community members to another public meeting – this one, specifically to delve into the planting elements.

The meeting will be held Wednesday, June 15, 2022 at 6 p.m. at New Harvest Park.

To view the landscape plan, visit www.knoxvilletn.gov/washingtonpike.

“We’re balancing safety and ease of maintenance care, adding habitat and ecological value,” said Sara Pinnell, principal of Hedstrom Landscape Architecture, which designed the landscaping.

“The corridor will truly be multi-modal – not just for cars. Bicyclists and pedestrians will be welcome. There will be opportunities for paths to meander and for amenities and some bigger trees and natural areas to be added.”

The first priority is safety. On average, there’s an accident every four days at Washington Pike and Lifespring Lane. That’s just one example. There are issues with other overworked intersections and the original roads being unable to accommodate increased vehicle volume throughout the corridor.

The proposed redesign fluctuates the width of the road and number of lanes based on a blend of traffic counts, crash data and proven engineering design solutions. 

Washington Pike would remain five lanes on the western end of the project area, where Greenway Drive ties in near the Target store. The pike would narrow to three lanes by New Harvest Lane, then expand back to five lanes, including a turn lane, at Steeple Shadow Way and Babelay Road and continue on in that configuration to the City limits at Murphy Road.

At that point, turn lanes would carry traffic onto Murphy or Pullman roads, and Washington Pike to the east would continue in its current two lanes.

City engineers and consultants with CDM Smith will begin the upcoming June 15 public meeting by providing the latest minor updates to the roadway design plan. But this meeting is the first one to focus primarily on the proposed plantings along the Washington Pike corridor.

Throughout the project corridor, a 10-foot multi-use pedestrian and bicycle path would be built along the north side of Washington Pike, with an 8-foot sidewalk along the south side. They would provide connections to existing parks and greenways.

At the June 15 meeting, Pinnell will explain how the multi-use paths would curve and twist through each section on the corridor, veering away from the road and its noise wherever possible.

For example, the section closest to I-640 has about 100 feet of right-of-way space – roomy enough to plant large native trees without interfering with motorists’ sight lines. Tree canopy would shade the walkways and a proposed KAT bus stop.

In multiple wide sections with slopes and elevation changes, the design calls for planting of minimal-care water quality treatment areas – that is, trees, groundcovers and natural edge landscaping that can reduce erosion and naturally filter pollutants.

Some parts of the corridor would have traffic medians, which would be enhanced with river rock and planted with groundcover or short shrubs.

Shade trees are to be planted wherever possible along the entire corridor, depending on sight lines, width of the right-of-way and location of utility lines.

Once the traffic flow plan is finalized and right-of-way acquired, work would begin in 2024. The City’s goal is to have the project completed by the end of 2026 or mid-2027.