Construction should begin next year on extending Hall of Fame Drive toward Broadway, but there's one component of the route missing - how it will connect with Broadway.
Complicating the issue is the fact that there is no funding or timetable to design and build the intersection.
Construction on Hall of Fame Drive, part of the downtown Interstate 40 and James White Parkway improvements, is slated to begin July 2005 and be finished by December 2006. As of now, the new road will terminate at Glenwood Avenue and hook into the existing feeder system to Broadway.
About 45 residents of neighborhoods potentially impacted by an intersection design decision met Thursday to share with planners their thoughts about benefits and pitfalls of the project.
Most participants agreed the new intersection should provide access for Hall of Fame Drive motorists trying to go southbound on Broadway. There is no way to do that now, other than go north on Broadway and turn around at a business or a nearby side street.
An estimated 22,470 vehicles a day are expected to use Hall of Fame Drive onto Broadway by 2009, said Teresa Estes, a transportation planner with Gresham Smith and Partners.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation paid GS&P $62,000 for a design and feasibility study of the intersection project, Estes said.
Estes already has met with a 16-member resource team consisting of community members, business leaders, TDOT, St. Mary's Medical Center and city planners to study the intersection. The group will meet again this month before a final public meeting in October, Estes said.
Based on concerns from residents about increased cut-through traffic in their communities, Estes will have her hands full keeping everybody happy.
"Cut-through traffic is a concern," Estes told the group. "But some streets serve as a collector street. If you close that corridor off, you have to realize you're sending that traffic to someone else's neighborhood. It's a tough decision to make."
Joe Irick said "it seems there's a steady flow of traffic" in front of his house on Kenyon Avenue leading to Broadway.
And on West Glenwood Avenue, one street south of Kenyon, Cathy Shuck and
Jo Ann Anderson say they're worried about increased traffic. Already motorists from Woodland Avenue take the hilly West Glenwood as a shortcut to Broadway and Interstate 40, they said.
Tomica Miller, who lives on West Glenwood Avenue and is president of the Old North Knoxville Neighborhood Association, said the city recently finished an 18-month long traffic calming study in the community. The city has $64,000 that can be used to install six speed humps, a raised intersection and five traffic circles to slow motorists, Miller said.
Now Miller is faced with the prospect of selecting where to place those traffic calming devices, without knowing how future traffic patterns will be impacted by a new Broadway and Hall of Fame Drive intersection.
"Do we continue on or stop where we're at?" Miller asked.
Don Jacobs may be reached at 865-342-6345.
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