KNOXVILLE, Tenn.— Construction crews with Charles Blalock & Sons recently completed a key stretch along the Knox-Blount Greenway, a 45-mile mega-project designed to provide pedestrians and cyclists connectivity from Knoxville to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
The new section, which is just over half a mile long, links Maloney Road Park to UT Farm Roads in south Knoxville along Alcoa Highway. The Public Building Authority helped oversee the project.
“Knox County is a great place to live, work and raise a family,” said Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs. “A greenway system like this, that connects multiple communities and multiple outdoor tourism destinations will help show others what we already know.”
A number of local and state jurisdictions are working on the overall project that will also pass through Alcoa, Maryville and Townsend.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation is currently building the trail from Marine Park to the Alcoa Way Shopping Center. That section should be wrapped up in the next year or two.
State crews will then work on an extension from UT Farm Road to Blount County, including a connection to IC King Park. That portion is about three years away from completion.
The project’s first phase kicked off in 2015 with the completion of some 2.2 miles that stretches from Neyland Drive across the Buck Karns Bridge to Knox County’s Marine Park.
A map of the project can be found here.
