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Alcoa City Manager Mark Johnson says it will be tough, but he hopes to come up with the money to build the planned pedestrian bridge over the U.S. 129 Bypass during the next budget year.

The bridge will link sections of Greenway trails on both sides of the busy four-lane highway.

“We’ve had several of the best bridge builders in the state design it. It will be located between Alcoa Municipal Building in Springbrook Corporate Center and Anderson Lumber Company,” Johnson said.

“It took us four years to get some money from a federal grant for the bridge,” he added.

The grant is for $860,000, but the price of the bridge has significantly increased to about $2 million.

“It’s going to be tough to come up with the money (in the next fiscal year),” Johnson said.

He will look at the whole bonded indebtedness of the city and see if there is any flexibility to come to come up with the needed funds.

The concrete and steel bridge will be the same width of the Greenway trails, 8 to 10 feet, and will be accessible to the disabled with ramps on both sides, Assistant City Manager Bill Hammon said.

“There is a tremendous amount of truck and equipment traffic on that road. The bridge will be high enough so that passing traffic, including big trucks hauling equipment, will hopefully not even come close to hitting it,” Hammon said.

Tennessee Department of Transportation has height requirements for loads on state roads, but two bridge overpasses on the Bypass and Hunt Road have been hit before by vehicles.

He does not expect construction of the bridge to have a big impact on traffic flow. The two concrete sides of the bridge will be erected and then a large crane will be brought in to lift and set the steel structure in place.

The bridge will open up another portion of the city to about 10 miles of Greenway trails citywide.

“There are three pending pieces of the trail that will be built when we can get around to scheduling it,” Hammon said.

One link will take the trail from Clayton headquarters to Meadowood Apartments, another will be sidewalks along Louisville Road and the third will hook up to St. Ives and Northwood subdivisions.

The Alcoa Greenway trail also hooks up to the four miles of trail in Maryville. Both cities continue to expand the trail system.