It took more than two years and $25 million to reconstruct a half-mile of Cumberland Avenue with medians, wider sidewalks and narrower lanes. How long, and how much, would it take to give 2.5 miles of Kingston Pike the same treatment?

That’s what a number of business owners along Kingston Pike wondered, worried the project would cut into their traffic.

Related:Knoxville business owners, volunteers work for a cleaner Cumberland Avenue

Although such ambitious ideas were floated in a 2012 transportation study, it’s not likely to happen – planners concluded it would be impractical, and all that’s on the table now is redoing the intersection of Kingston Pike with Northshore Drive.

Business owners along Kingston Pike took notice when survey marks began appearing on the road, and looked up the 2012 study, said Eddie Mannis. Mannis, a Knoxville mayoral candidate, is owner of Prestige Cleaners, which has two locations on Kingston and one on Northshore.

He and about 50 other people, mainly local business owners, held a meeting at the Bearden Hill location of Calhoun’s to discuss the recommendations.

Mannis said he opposed the idea of medians on Kingston Pike from the start, and thinks it’s unlikely they’ll ever be built.

“It would be devastating to the businesses on Kingston Pike,” he said.

Indeed, medians and related work along that section of Kingston are unlikely for several reasons, said Mark Nagi, Region 1 community relations officer for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

“A raised median is highly unlikely due to the impacts on the local businesses and on the amount of right-of-way acquisition that would be necessary,” he said.

That can’t be guaranteed until the final report is ready in a few weeks, but TDOT’s Strategic Transportation Investments Division “does not anticipate it at this time,” Nagi said.

“Also, until the report is finalized, we are not sure if there will be wider sidewalks, street calming or similar enhancements,” he said.

The Cumberland effect

Ashley Williams, regional manager for Kelley X-Ray – his office on Lyons View Pike is near the Noelton/Kingston intersection – said he’s been monitoring the discussion since April and is the designated spokesman for the business owners who met at Calhoun’s.

“They’re calling every day asking for updates,” Williams said; but he’s still waiting on TDOT’s final report. Another meeting is likely when that report is released, Williams said.

The space needed for a Cumberland Avenue-style build-out along Kingston Pike would destroy some businesses even along the wider stretch on Bearden Hill, he said. M&M House of Brakes & Mufflers at 6212 Kingston Pike, for example, would lose almost all its current frontage, and perhaps the building itself, Williams said.

The Cumberland Avenue project, which was finished in August 2017, began in 2015 with work between Alcoa Highway and 22nd Street, then continued in mid-2016 with a second phase between 22nd and 17th Street.

It turned a four-lane road into three lanes, with raised medians and left-turn lanes at intersections. Sidewalks widened and landscaping went in, all with the aim of slowing cars and improving things for walkers and bicyclists on the commercial strip near the University of Tennessee campus.

Several business owners on the stretch expressed hope that the result would help their establishments attract more customers – but also reported their traffic was way off during the long construction process.

The city reported that the project drew $190 million in new private investment to the corridor, but operators of restaurants such as Jason’s Deli, Sunspot and Stefano’s said their Cumberland locations couldn’t have survived the construction-related dry spell without subsidies from their companies’ other restaurants.

At least one didn’t: the Krystal at 1718 Cumberland Ave. closed in April 2017. At the time, the manager cited loss of business from two years of construction interference, but hoped the closure would be temporary.

It never reopened. In January, Krystal announced the location was closed for good.

Report in depth

In 2012, Nashville consultants Kimley-Horn and Associates looked at a 2.5-mile section of Kingston Pike from Papermill Road to Noelton Drive, across from Western Plaza, and a 1.3-mile section of Northshore Drive from its own intersection with Papermill to Lyons View Pike.

At the request of the city engineering division, they contemplated possible road improvements. The 2012 study itself grew out of a desire for more detail on 2007 and 2001 studies.

The Kingston Pike corridor has seen much of the city’s commercial development for several decades, resulting in heavy traffic; crash rates on the target stretches are “more than twice the statewide average for similar roadways,” the study found.

“Several intersections and segments of both the Kingston Pike and Northshore Drive corridors are at or near capacity,” the study says.

Goals included improving things for pedestrians by repairing sidewalks on Kingston Pike northeast of Northshore Drive, and connecting them with existing greenways and bike routes. But the biggest recommendation was also the most controversial.

“The primary operational analysis recommendation for the study corridors is to convert the existing TWLTL (two-way left-turn lanes) to a raised median with median openings and left-turn bays at public streets and major unsignalized intersections for both the Kingston Pike corridor from Papermill Drive west to Northshore Drive, and the entire length of the Northshore Drive corridor from Papermill Drive south to Lyons View Pike,” the study says.

Medians on Kingston from Papermill to Noelton Drive “would also be beneficial,” but the lack of available right-of-way makes that “fiscally impractical,” it says.

All the recommended work would likely cost more than $20 million in 2011 dollars, the study’s authors estimated. That’s close to $23 million today. But “short-term” improvements, such as to the Kingston/Northshore intersection, were estimated to run about $2.6 million, or $3 million today.

Intersection plans

While the study recommended some work for many corners along Kingston and Northshore – sometimes just landscaping work or curb improvements – the biggest overhaul was envisioned for the intersection of those two major roads: dedicated left- and right-turn lanes all around, pedestrian crossings, sidewalks and landscaping, and a third through-lane on Kingston Pike for at least 1,500 feet on either side of the intersection.

The 2012 study included long sections of Northshore Drive and Kingston Pike to take a look at overall conditions in the area, but no related work is on the radar for anyplace but where those roads cross, said Mike Conger, senior transportation engineer for the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission and the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization.

“Again, the major focus of the study was at the intersection itself since it has long been recognized as being congested,” he said.

Preliminary engineering for Kingston/Northshore intersection improvements has been funded, but the following two essential phases – right-of-way acquisition and construction – will have to be approved for funding in the state’s future three-year work programs before construction starts, Nagi said.

Updated, specific cost estimates will be in the final report; the next three-year work program will be released in spring 2019.

Decisions and doubts

Kingston/Northshore intersection improvements are in the very early stages of planning, said Fiona McAnally, city deputy communications director. Once a preliminary design is ready, it will be shown and discussed at a public meeting, she said.

The report’s other recommendations aren’t in any current city engineering project, McAnally said. Knoxville is adding bike safety features and improving KAT bus stops in the general area, but that’s all.

Ultimately, Kingston Pike is a state road, meaning TDOT decides what will happen. But Knoxville has made its opinion known to the state, she said.

“The City has not, and will not, be pushing for divided medians,” McAnally said.

Generally, the state puts up 75 percent of the money for such road projects, with local governments contributing 25 percent, said District 7 State Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville. In practice, that often means the scope of projects is limited by how much local officials can come up with, said Briggs, a former Knox County commissioner.

Williams said he’s spoken with numerous TDOT staff, who told him some road work – reducing curb cuts, adding left-turn lanes at intersections, adding bike lanes, and perhaps widening Papermill Drive from Kingston Pike to Weisgarber Road – are still possibilities. But even some of the suggestions for the corner of Kingston and Northshore may not get the nod, such as adding a monument sign, he said.

“I don’t see that happening,” Williams said – truck drivers tell him wide-turning rigs would knock such a sign down within a week.

At the Calhoun’s meeting, Mannis spoke with and has had ongoing talks with city officials on the subject.

Briggs, who attended the Calhoun's meeting, said former Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, now a Republican candidate for Congress, and District 18 State Rep. Martin Daniel, R-Knoxville, were also there.

TDOT has told him medians are “highly unlikely” due to their expense, Briggs said; business owners have also made their case about limiting access.

“So I think they’re listening to us,” he said.

The corner of Kingston and Northshore, however, is widely acknowledged to be a bottleneck, Briggs said.

“If that gets fixed, that’ll take care of a lot of the traffic flow,” he said.