On Feb. 27, the Executive Board of the TPO approved a resolution requesting TDOT to further study the feasibility of constructing the Knoxville Regional Parkway or a longer bypass route as a toll facility.

An initial report to study potential toll roads has already been conducted as directed by the Tennessee Tollway Act, approved by the Tennessee General Assembly in 2007. The entire bypass route, including the Parkway and the eastern leg, was the subject of the Conceptual Feasibility Study completed by Wilbur Smith Associates for TDOT in 2007. The results of the study are available on the TDOT website at http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/documents/tollstudy/SR475Conceptual.pdf.

The Executive Board voted to request TDOT to advance its initial study with more updated information. After TDOT reports back to the Executive Board later this summer with the results of that study, the Executive Board will decide whether to recommend this project to the Tennessee General Assembly as a pilot toll road.

TDOT officials proposed the idea of paying for the new road by using tolls because of tightened state and federal dollars for transportation. Unless alternate funding such as toll roads are employed, the competing demand for transportation dollars could cause years of delay for this and other critical projects. Transportation officials were recently notified that they will not be receiving $66 million of promised federal money for transportation projects. Nearly a quarter-billion dollars has been cut from Tennessee’s expected federal road money since 2005.