Traffic Plan Will Reroute Traffic Through Sevierville

Article Source: Jeff Farrell/The Mountain Press - click here. If all the road projects around Sevierville get finished on schedule, traffic around downtown will have a new look in mid-June. After several delays, city officials hope to premiere a radical redesign of traffic around the city on that date. It will be the culmination of several projects.

TDOT initially had planned to add a new bypass around downtown to help improve congestion at "Malfunction Junction," where Highway 66 crosses Main Street. The bypass, which the city recently named North Parkway, includes a new bridge that will allow traffic flowing north on the Parkway to cross the east prong of the Little Pigeon River without going to Fred C. Atchley Bridge. It will cross through Love Addition Subdivision and come out on Highway 66 across from Garret's Muscle Car Museum.

When TDOT originally proposed the bypass, it called for maintaining five lanes around the city, with two lanes going north and south on each side and a center lane for turning. The city, seizing on the opportunity to relieve more of the stress on the overburdened roads, proposed a more radical redesign called the "Ultraflow" plan that they said would improve flow around downtown.

Earlier this year, when TDOT announced it would remove the "dry land bridge" where West Main Street runs into Highway 66/Forks of the River and replace it with a land crossing, the city took that opportunity to add another lane of traffic going west on the road. Contractors opened all lanes of that project Thursday, although TDOT officials have said they might need to close some lanes later on to complete the project.

TDOT announced recently they will not be able to finish the North Parkway bypass until mid-June, and city officials are hoping to finish the Ultraflow project at the same time.The city released a map of the Ultraflow traffic plan last week. It will host a public information meeting on the plans at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Civic Center.

The biggest change will be for traffic going southbound, coming back down the Parkway from Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Ultraflow design calls for southbound traffic to stay on the Parkway, rather than turning onto the Forks of the River bypass.

Three lanes of traffic will proceed onto the Parkway, while only one will allow traffic to turn left onto Forks of The River.

The design calls for traffic going north on the Parkway to cross the intersection with Dolly Parton Parkway/East Main Street and go over the new bridge over the Little Pigeon River. It will proceed along the bypass through Love Addition subdivision; the Board of Mayor and Aldermen recently voted to name that road North Parkway.

North Parkway empties out onto Highway 66 across from Garret's Muscle Car Museum; officials say they will add a new traffic light and additional lanes at that intersection.

Traffic going south will proceed toward Pigeon Forge as it always has, along the Forks of The River Parkway, but will have three lanes from the North Parkway intersection onward, including at Fred C. Atchley Bridge.

There will be two northbound lanes on the Forks of the River, along with a turn lane for traffic going in either direction, according to the design.

Bob Bowers is an associate-in-charge with Wilbur Smith Associates, the engineering firm that designed the Ultraflow pattern. He said the new design will improve traffic downtown in the short term." This will materially improve traffic flow for some period of time and then as traffic begins to build up it will be similar to existing conditions," he said. It will take several years for congestion to become that bad again, he said. The hope is that when the Middle Creek extension to Highway 66 will be completed, it will further improve the traffic flow around Sevierville."

Basically instead of four travel lanes going through downtown there will be six, so we're adding two lanes to handle the north and south flow," Bowers said. Because there will not be as much traffic going in one direction, the city will be able to alter the timing patterns on street lights throughout downtown, making them more efficient as well, he said.

Congestion should be reduced at Fred C. Atchley bridge because most of the southbound traffic will be traveling over the new bridge on North Parkway, he added.

The new traffic light where North Parkway merges with Highway 66 will become the new focal point for tourist traffic, he said, because that's where traffic going north and south will once again be on the same roadway. It shouldn't be as congested as the intersection of Main Street and Highway 66/Forks of the River, he said, noting more lanes will be available and the lights will be timed differently. The change also means southbound traffic will merge from one direction rather than crossing at Main Street." The signal will be more efficient, and more lanes will be available," he said.


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