TDOT outlines West Knoxville PEL study, schedules public open houses and frames options from spot fixes to a 25‑mile I‑75 bypass

Amanda Snowden, regional director for TDOT’s East Tennessee region, told the TPO Executive Board on June 24 that the agency is advancing a Planning and Environmental Linkage (PEL) study for the I‑40/I‑75 west‑Knoxville corridor to accelerate project delivery by tying planning work into environmental review. "A PEL ... allows us to look at alternatives early and consider what those look like, as well as do public involvement," Snowden said.

The PEL covers a roughly 17‑mile mainline study area and a wider corridor used to evaluate options that could include an I‑75 bypass. Brad Thompson of STV, the consultant team, said FHWA has approved the study’s purpose‑and‑need document and the team is now screening alternatives and preparing an alternative‑evaluation report that will feed into NEPA. "We're taking a holistic look at the corridor to determine kind of what some of the opportunities are to improve the corridor," Thompson said.

Why it matters: the corridor carries heavy daily traffic and freight, and without intervention Thompson warned conditions will worsen. The PEL’s stated goals are to reduce congestion, improve travel times and modernize system elements that have not been updated for decades.

What’s being considered: the consultant presented a menu of approaches that will be screened. Those include: - Interstate widening (add one general‑purpose lane each direction): improves capacity and freight movement but has major right‑of‑way, environmental and construction impacts. - Collector‑distributor (CD) roads: separates weaving and interchange traffic but offers limited overall congestion relief and still requires land and environmental review. - Choice/managed lanes: adds tolled, barrier‑separated lanes with dynamic pricing to improve reliability; may be eligible for Transportation Modernization Act funding but increases right‑of‑way impacts in places and can conflict with transmission infrastructure. - I‑75 bypass (conceptual): a 25‑mile, four‑lane relocation north of town that could divert regional truck traffic and reduce mainline demand but would require extensive new right‑of‑way and carry substantial environmental and community impacts. - Transportation Systems Management & Operations (TSMO) and technology measures: ramp metering, variable speed limits, dynamic message signs and connected‑vehicle technologies that can improve incident response and safety; these are seen as complementary rather than standalone solutions. - Targeted/spot improvements: smaller, lower‑cost fixes at identified bottlenecks that can improve safety and local congestion without whole‑corridor impacts. - Express bus: limited‑stop regional transit using park‑and‑ride lots and existing roadway infrastructure; expands travel choices but—according to the study team—won’t alone solve corridor‑wide congestion.

Board questions highlighted tradeoffs between short‑term relief and long‑term corridor capacity. A Knoxville official asked for TDOT support to modernize Kingston Pike and Middlebrook Pike traffic signal systems, citing near‑term safety concerns and the need for relief before longer projects are built. Kristen Qualls, TDOT project management director, said express bus can be viable as part of a managed‑lane network and that transit reliability benefits most when buses can use priority lanes.

Air quality and modeling: board members asked whether the PEL includes air‑quality modeling. Thompson and other consultants said detailed air‑quality analysis is part of NEPA and will be done at the appropriate level later; the PEL performs higher‑level screening to flag potential environmental constraints now.

Rail and other scenarios: members asked whether regional passenger rail (for example, Nashville–Knoxville) was evaluated. The team said rail scenarios can change corridor needs but there are no funded passenger‑rail projects currently that would be assumed in this PEL.

Schedule and next steps: the study team said it plans three open‑house public meetings next Monday–Wednesday (5–7 p.m.) and will complete detailed screening and issue preliminary recommendations, with a final PEL report expected in the fall. Thompson summarized the process as a two‑stage screening that looks first for fatal flaws and then applies numerical evaluation, cost, constructability and environmental factors to rank alternatives.

What’s next: the team urged board members to share meeting information and invited public comments; TDOT staff also said they will coordinate with local jurisdictions on short‑term operations projects where possible. The board did not vote on any measure; the presentation provided direction for the team’s ongoing screening work and public outreach.