The City of Knoxville, alongside leaders from the University of Tennessee, announced today that they have received a $24.7 million grant from the federal government which will fulfill the funding requirements for a $60 million pedestrian bridge planned for the South Knoxville waterfront.
"We are so excited to have secured the next round of funding to make the South Knoxville Pedestrian Bridge a reality," Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon stated in a press release.
It was the third time that the city had applied for the federal funds via the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program under the Biden administration. They were turned down in 2023 and 2024, but given a last-minute opportunity to apply again just a few months ago.
“This pedestrian bridge is a testament to the power of patience, perseverance and vision,” Kincannon said at a Wednesday press conference. “This bridge itself is going to be beautiful, and we are also committed to creating a holistic and well-designed public place on the waterfront where the bridge lands.”
The bridge has been in the works since 2006, when a plan was adopted by the city to reimagine the Tennessee River’s south waterfront with new development. It has been the intention all along for a bridge of some kind to tie the whole development together, extending from the University of Tennessee campus to the neighborhood of South Knoxville.
Leaders from the city, university, county, and state have all come together to figure out how to fund the massive bridge project, which was announced to have a hefty price tag of $60 million.
Concerns of tax increases were quickly abated when the Tennessee Department of Transportation said it would commit $20 million to the project. With additional investments from the Knoxville Community Development Corporation and now the grant from the federal government, the bridge’s path to construction seems clear.
“That is radical, to get all those groups working together in one way or another,” UT Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman said at the press conference. “To be able to connect the other side of the river to campus and downtown, that was a dream.”
Kincannon said that the intent of the bridge is to connect two neighborhoods which have for a long time only been connected via highway - South Knoxville and the University of Tennessee’s downtown campus.
Next, UT and the city will have to come together to finalize a plan for the bridge. It is not clear when exactly they hope to initiate the project, though plans published by the city last year revealed a construction timeline which would see the bridge built between 2028 and 2030.
