The University of Tennessee (UT), along with the city of Knoxville and Knox County, are teaming up to begin funding a new pedestrian-bicycle bridge over the Tennessee River to extend the college's boundary. The river has long been viewed as the immovable southern barrier of the campus.
According to the Daily Beacon, UT's student news source, the university's board of trustees on Feb. 25 approved the expansion of the campus boundary to include a narrow parcel of land on the south shore of the river along Scottish Pike and West Blount Avenue.
The proposed bridge would connect the area along the South Waterfront to the rest of campus. UT has yet to acquire the tract of land it would need, though, to get the project built.
The overall effort, if realized, also would connect an 18-mi. downtown greenway with the pedestrian-bicycle bridge and the Knoxville Urban Wilderness, a system of over 50 mi. of trails and scenery in south Knoxville.
Representatives from the city, the county and the university estimated the entire project to cost between $50 million to $55 million, the Daily Beacon reported March 9.
Span Needed to Carry Out UT Expansion
The idea for the pedestrian bridge, which would extend from near Thompson-Boling Arena to south Knoxville's Tennessee River shoreline, first appeared in the city's 2006 South Waterfront Vision Plan. It was later halted due to a lack of funding, including a failed attempt to secure federal grants in 2015.
Since 2006, the South Waterfront area has seen $61 million of public improvement, as well as millions more in private investment.
The Daily Beacon learned from city officials that their renewed enthusiasm for the bridge proposal is tied to momentum for further development of the South Waterfront and connecting it with UT and downtown Knoxville as well as the increased availability of federal infrastructure funding from the Biden administration.
Though the South Waterfront property is not the site of any planned residence halls or parking areas in the near term, the UT Board of Trustees' proposal for the campus extension made clear that the area represented a "unique opportunity" to address increasing housing and parking needs in the future.
At the 2022 State of the University Address, two days before the board of trustees approved two new residence halls on the west side of campus at its Feb. 25 meeting, UT President Randy Boyd and university chancellors touted the growth of the system.
"Without a doubt, this is a strong second year to the greatest decade in the history of the University of Tennessee," Boyd said.
First Step in Bridge Project Achieved
Tyra Haag, director of news and information at UT, later said that although proposals for a pedestrian bridge over the river have been around since 2006, the recent board of trustees meeting represented the first step in the university's vision for the project.
"We are grateful to have alignment with city and state leaders, but we are in the early stages of exploratory discussion and planning," she noted. "Going to the board of trustees was a first step in planning. As part of the early discussions, both President Boyd and Chancellor [Donde] Plowman's chief of staff met with Governor [Bill] Lee and members of the Knox County delegation."
The South Waterfront tract included in the UT campus boundary is currently home to underutilized or vacant industrial and commercial property, according to the Daily Beacon's reporting.
The campus newspaper reported that "substantial work" had been done since 2009 to prepare the bridge location for future construction and to secure approval from various agencies. In addition, it will need to meet clearance requirements for the river's barge channel and for Neyland Drive.
Surging Enrollment Key to UT's Focus on Growth
The Daily Beacon noted that the UT Board of Trustees meeting clearly showed that the central reasons for moving ahead with the bridge proposal were the growing number of students at the university, and the limited space to build within the campus boundary.
The assembly's agenda stated that the 2016 Master Plan Update for UT "recognized the university's long-range building needs exceed both its currently owned property and that which could be acquired within the existing campus boundary."
The college accepted its largest first-year class on record last fall, with the enrollment of almost 6,000 new students. The school's enrollment management team projects the incoming freshman class in 2022 could rise to as many as 6,300 students.
UT's all-time high in total enrollment was reached in 2021, with 53,983 students at the Knoxville campus, a 2.7 percent increase above the previous year.
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