Knoxville TIP amended to add federal funds for Pleasant Ridge Road, Liberty Street multimodal projects

The Knoxville Transportation Planning Organization on Feb. 1 approved amendments to the regional Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) to add federal funding to two City of Knoxville projects and revise schedules to show construction in fiscal 2025.

Craig Lipke of TPO staff presented the two amendments. The larger change adds about $4.6 million in Local Surface Transportation Block Grant (LSTBG) funding to the Pleasant Ridge Road project to cover higher final estimates as construction approaches. Lipke said the construction phase of Pleasant Ridge Road is estimated at about $14.8 million and total project costs — including KUB non‑participating utility work — will be about $17.5 million after the amendment; Lipke identified roughly $3.5 million of non‑participating local utility costs charged to KUB.

Lipke described the Pleasant Ridge project as a reconstruction that will include turn lanes and bicycle and pedestrian facilities and said the project has been in development for some time and is ready to move to construction.

The second amendment adds roughly $600,000 in Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) funding to the Liberty Street multimodal project and updates that project’s schedule to FY 2025; Lipke said the Liberty Street project’s total cost after the amendment is about $2.2 million. Lipke also noted both amendments had been reviewed and approved by the TPO technical committee earlier in the month.

A motion to approve the TIP amendments was made by Council Member Andrew Roberto and seconded (second not specified in the record). The body approved the amendments by voice vote; individual vote tallies were not recorded in the meeting minutes.

The amendments also reaffirmed that the metropolitan transportation planning process was being followed for these project changes, Lipke said.