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The Alcoa Parkway, a proposed bypass around Alcoa Highway to relieve congestion, is moving closer to reality after nine years of planning.

A public hearing is expected to be held by Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) on its right-of-way plans for the roadway at the earliest in spring 2010.

The TDOT environmental survey should be done in a month and the plans will then go to the Federal Highway Administration for review, said Alcoa City Manager Mark Johnson.

"That will likely take until spring and then, hopefully, we will get the go-ahead on the project," he said.

The Alcoa Parkway will run from the Hall Road/U.S. 129 Bypass split to the Singleton Station Road intersection, The six-lane parkway will run five miles and provide drivers a much quicker way to and from the Knoxville area.

From the start at the split the road will follow Alcoa Highway up to and just north of the existing Hunt Road interchange, said Alcoa Director of Public Works Kenny Wiggins. North of there it starts to bear east and then stays east of and beside Alcoa Highway until it crosses Wright Road.

It then skews a little more to the east and goes to the back side of North Park Industrial Park, crosses Pellissippi Parkway and transitions back to the west to tie into Alcoa Highway at Singleton Station Road.

There will be no traffic lights on the Parkway, which will speed traffic flow.

Alcoa Parkway will have interchanges at Hunt Road, McGhee Tyson Airport, Wright Road, Pellissippi Parkway, Singleton Station north of Pine Lakes Golf Course and at the actual intersection of the Alcoa Parkway and Alcoa Highway near the present Singleton Station.

Alcoa Highway plans

"The purpose is to get rid of traffic congestion on Alcoa Highway, which will turn into a commercial street. It will be our Kingston Pike," Wiggins said. "It's our commercial corridor."

"These will be better and safer routes for both through traffic (on the Alcoa Parkway) and local traffic (Alcoa Highway)," he said.

"Alcoa Highway is one of, if not the, most heaviest traveled non-Interstate highways in the state," Wiggins said.

Having the Parkway will allow officials to install seven traffic lights on Alcoa Highway.

"Signals are functional without through traffic. They are not functional with the volume of through traffic that Alcoa Highway now handles," he added.

Traffic lights will be located at:

— Alcoa Highway at ramps coming off the parkway and tieing in with the main McGhee Tyson Airport.

— Cusick Road at Ruby Tuesday Restaurant.

— Realigned Wright Road and Wrights Ferry Road near Shoney's.

— Realigned Airbase Road and North Park Boulevard near West Chevrolet.

— Airway Drive at RJ's Courtyard.

— Ramp coming from Alcoa Highway to Singleton Station Road just north of Pine Lakes Golf Course.

— Vista Drive and realigned Singleton Station Road.

The project, because it is so big, will be overseen by TDOT, not city public works employees,

Hunt portion first

Johnson hopes to pull out the Hunt Road portion from the Hall Road/U.S. 129 Bypass split to just south of McGhee Tyson Airport and construct it first.

"That would be easy to do," Wiggins said.

That area of Alcoa Parkway is going to serve as the main entrance into the 350-acre former ALCOA Inc. West Plant property. Developers Kinsey Probasco Hays (KPH) and International Risk Group (IRG) are planning a $500 million development at build-out, not including inflation.

A 10-year-minimum build-out is anticipated for the project.

Having an entrance road would give developers and the city a good way to begin marketing the property.

The initial plan was to let Pellissippi Parkway be the dividing line between two phases. The south end of Pellissippi is longer, but a lot of work must be done on the north side, Wiggins said.

If the Hunt Road interchange is pulled out, it would likely be a three-phase project.

Once the go-ahead is given on the project, TDOT will start right-of-way plans and hold the right-of-way public hearing. The hearing could result in TDOT engineers making some changes to the plans.

The project would then move into right-of-way acquisition and final project design.