 U.S. Route 129 | |||||||
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 US 129 highlighted in red | |||||||
| Route information | |||||||
| Maintained byTDOT | |||||||
| Length | 52.8 mi[1] (85.0 km) | ||||||
| Existed | 1934–present | ||||||
| Major junctions | |||||||
| South end |  US 129 at theNC line atDeals Gap, NC | ||||||
| Major intersections | |||||||
| North end |  I-40 inKnoxville | ||||||
| Location | |||||||
| Country | United States | ||||||
| State | Tennessee | ||||||
| Counties | Blount,Monroe,Knox | ||||||
| Highway system | |||||||
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U.S. Route 129 (US 129) is a north–southUnited States highway that runs for 52.8 miles (85.0 km) inEast Tennessee, from theNorth Carolina state line, nearTapoco, toKnoxville. In Tennessee, the highway is completely overlapped by unsigned (except for mileposts)State Route 115 (SR 115). In theGreater Knoxville area, US 129 serves as a six-lanecontrolled-access highway known asAlcoa Highway.
U.S. 129 entersTennessee from North Carolina at through theDeals Gap mountain pass through the western fringes of theGreat Smoky Mountains. Immediately withinBlount County, the highway twists and turns, roughly following the natural topography of the mountains. This section is known as the "Tail of the Dragon" (or simply "The Dragon") due to its extremely sharp and tight curves, and roughly forms the boundary between theGreat Smoky Mountains National Park to the east and theCherokee National Forest to the west. The "Tail of the Dragon" is very popular with tourists and enthusiasts ofmotorcycles andsports cars. After several miles, the highway gradually straightens out, and starts running along the banks of theLittle Tennessee River. Here the road becomes known as "Calderwood Highway". The highway then shifts into an east-west alignment and has an intersection with the western terminus of theFoothills Parkway before passing byChilhowee Dam and going through theTallassee community. US 129 then turns north and briefly entersMonroe County where it has an intersection with the eastern terminus ofSR 72. It then reenters Blount County and passes through additional woodlands, before intersecting withSR 336 in theLanier community.
US 129 continues northeast over the next several miles through a mix of farmland and residential neighborhoods toClover Hill, where it becomes concurrent withUS 411. The two routes proceed northeast as a five-lane undivided highway with acenter turn lane to enter the city ofMaryville. Passing initially through mostly residential areas, the highways have an intersection with the southern terminus ofSR 335 (William Blount Drive). The two highways then pass through additional neighborhoods and a commercial area, before reaching adirectional T interchange, where US 129 separates from US 411. Bypassing downtown Maryville on the west side, US 129 becomes a divided four-lane highway here known as US 129 Bypass as it passes byFoothills Mall and has intersections withUS 321 (Lamar Alexander Boulevard), Foothills Mall Drive (unsignedSR 446), and Foch Street before crossing into the neighboring town ofAlcoa. US 129 then has an interchange with Midsettlements Road and Bessemer Street before reaching an intersection with Louisville Road, which provides access to the neighboring town ofLouisville. The highway then has an at-grade railroad crossing before coming to a directional-T interchange withSR 35 (N Hall Road), which also provides access to downtown Maryville.
At the interchange with SR 35, US 129 becomes a divided highway currently in the process of being upgraded into acontrolled-access highway. Initially known asAirport Highway the highway has an interchange first with a connector to SR 335 (Hunt Road) and then a connector toMcGhee Tyson Airport. It then becomes known asAlcoa Highway, a name that it keeps all the way to its northern end. The highway then passes through a major business district before having an intersection with Airbase Road (SR 429) and coming to a cloverleaf interchange with thePellissippi Parkway (I-140 westbound, SR 162 southbound). The stretch between the airport and Pellissippi Parkway is often considered dangerous and even deadly due to the amount of traffic and crashes on the highway. Alcoa Highway continues through suburban areas before having an intersection withSR 333 (Topside Road) before leaving Alcoa. It then crosses a bridge over theLittle River to enterKnox County.
Immediately within the city limits ofKnoxville, the route has an interchange withSR 168 (GovernorJohn Sevier Highway) a short distance later east of theFort Loudoun Lake impoundment of theTennessee River. It then passes through a wooded area, crossing an impoundment of the lake, and then becomes a freeway once again. Expanding to six lanes, the highway gainsfrontage roads, which provide access to adogbone interchange with Maloney Road, and partial interchange with Montlake Drive. The road then reduces to four lanes, passing adjacent to the east side of the river again, before reaching a trumpet interchange with Cherokee Trail and the road to theUT Knoxville Memorial Hospital, expanding back to six lanes and once again becoming a freeway. US 129 then crosses the Tennessee River on theJames E. "Buck" Karnes Bridge. Immediately on the other side of the river, the highway has interchanges withUS 11/US 70/SR 158 (Neyland Drive) andKingston Pike, and runs along the western edge of TheUniversity of Tennessee. US 129 then crosses a series of railroads and surface streets on a long viaduct through industrial areas before coming reaching its northern terminus at an interchange withI-40.
In 1935, theAmerican Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) approved an extension of US 129 into Tennessee. The highway followed SR 72 from the state line to US 411 nearVonore. The route then remained concurrent with this route and SR 33 to Maryville, where US 411 split off, heading towardSevierville. US 129 would then follow SR 33 to US 11/70 in Knoxville. This route crossed the Tennessee River on theHenley Street Bridge in Knoxville, which was joined by US 441 in 1951. By 1940, AASHTO approved rerouting US 129 onto SR 115 between Tallassee and Maryville. As part of the construction of Chilhowee Dam between 1955 and 1957, a new higher alignment was constructed between Tabcat Creek and the dam. Today, the old route is largely submerged, but is sometimes visible when the water level is low.[2]
The Alcoa Highway portion of US 129 was first constructed and completed as a two-lane roadway from Knoxville to Blount County in 1939 to provide access to the then recently opened McGhee Tyson Airport. Initially, this route only carried the SR 115 designation, and in 1961, AASHO approved rerouting US 129 onto Alcoa Highway. They also rejected a request by Tennessee to renumber the old US 129 alignment along SR 33 to US 129 Alternate. US 129's bridge over the Tennessee River in Knoxville was completed in 1935, and was named afterJames Ernest Karnes (a.k.a. J. E. "Buck" Karnes), a Knoxville recipient of theMedal of Honor. On November 29, 1963, the final project to widen Alcoa Highway into a four-lane median-divided facility between I-40 and McGhee Tyson Airport was completed and dedicated by Tennessee GovernorFrank G. Clement, U.S. SenatorHerbert S. Walters, and CongressmanHoward Baker.[3] Several upgrades improvingmobility were constructed on the Knoxville-Knox County section of Alcoa Highway, including replacements of at-grade intersections withinterchanges at theUniversity of Tennessee Medical Center (UTMC) andJohn Sevier Highway in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s respectively.[4]
Increasing congestion on Alcoa Highway in Knoxville prompted pushes from residents to form a neighborhood group Make Alcoa a Safe Highway (MASH) in the early 1980s, seeking to address concerns of safety on the highway. In 1986, MASH issued a report with immediate request and short and long-term range plans. Several of the recommendations were established such as a ban of parking on the US 129'sright-of-way, speed limit enforcement, and highway lighting. Major planning by theTennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) in the 1980s and 1990s recommendedmedian crossing closures, new overpass structures, and the widening into a six-lane facility.[4]
The construction of thePellissippi Parkway fromOak Ridge to Alcoa required the construction of acloverleaf interchange at US 129, which was completed in the early 1990s. Around the same time, the City of Knoxville installed lighting along the highway from the Little River north to the UTMC followingannexation of the US 129 right-of-way and selected neighboring commercial and residential land-uses. Improvements were made to the US 129 interchange at I-40 and the "Buck" Karnes bridge was replaced with a new six-lane structure by the early 2000s. By 2000, TDOT began property acquisitions for the planned expansions of Alcoa Highway between I-40 and the Little River.[4]
In 2014, TDOT announced plans for improvements to the Alcoa Highway section of US 129 from I-40 to McGhee Tyson Airport in Blount County. The massive project, consisting of seven phases, called for the conversion of Alcoa Highway from anon-access-controlled highway into a fullcontrolled-access highway (freeway). The overall project was given an initial cost of more than $233 million. The first phase of the project to begin was the Maloney Road to Woodson Drive phase in South Knoxville, with contract bidding opening in February 2016.[5]Construction work on the Maloney to Woodson phase of the Alcoa Highway improvement project began in June of the same year.[6] This section would be mostly complete by the fall of 2021, when new revisions for an access roadway to the Montlake Drive interchange were issued, expecting to be finished in the winter 2022.[7] The next phase that will construct the Alcoa Highway between Woodson Drive to Cherokee Trail was started in July 2023 and is expected to be completed by Fall 2027.[8]
| County | Location | mi[1] | km | Exit | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blount | | 0.0 | 0.0 |  US 129 south –Robbinsville | Continuation fromNorth Carolina throughDeals Gap; south end of SR 115 overlap | |
| Chilhowee | 14.3 | 23.0 | Foothills Parkway | Southern terminus of Foothills Parkway | ||
| Monroe | Pumpkin Center | 21.4 | 34.4 |   SR 72 west –Vonore | Eastern terminus of SR 72 | |
| Blount | Lanier | 25.0 | 40.2 |  SR 336 (Six Mile Road / Brick Mill Road) –Greenback | ||
| Clover Hill | 32.0 | 51.5 |  US 411 south (SR 33 south) –Vonore | South end of US 411/SR 33 overlap | ||
| Maryville | 33.8 | 54.4 |   SR 335 north (William Blount Drive) | Southern terminus of SR 335 | ||
| 36.3 | 58.4 | US 411 north (Broadway Avenue/SR 33 north) | North end of US 411/SR 33 concurrency;Interchange; northbound to northbound, southbound to southbound, and southbound US 411/SR 33 to northbound US 129; access from southbound US 129 to northbound US 411/SR 33 viaU-turn at Cooper Street | |||
| 36.8 | 59.2 | Mall Road | Southboundright-in/right-out ramps | |||
| 37.2 | 59.9 |  US 321 (Lamar Alexander Parkway/SR 73) –Friendsville,Lenoir City,Walland,Townsend | Provides access to theGreat Smoky Mountains National Park | |||
| 37.8 | 60.8 |  SR 446 west (Foothills Mall Drive) | SR 446 is unsigned; eastern terminus of SR 446 | |||
| Alcoa | 38.2 | 61.5 | West Bessemer Street / Middlesettlements Road | Diverging diamond interchange | ||
| 40.0 | 64.4 |  SR 35 north (Hall Road) –Alcoa | Interchange; southern terminus of SR 35; northbound to northbound, southbound to southbound, and northbound US 129 to southbound SR 35 Access from northbound SR 35 to southbound US 129 via U-turn on northbound US 129 at milepost 40.2 | |||
| 40.7 | 65.5 | Tesla Boulevard TOSR 335 (Hunt Road) | Interchange | |||
| 15 |  McGhee Tyson Airport Passenger Terminal | Future interchange | ||||
| 17 | Wright Road | Future interchange | ||||
| 18 |   SR 162 east (Pellissppi Parkway) –Oak Ridge,Eagleton Village | Currentcloverleaf interchange; stack interchange under construction | ||||
| 19 | Frontage Rd | Future interchange | ||||
| 45.8 | 73.7 |  SR 333 south (Topside Road) –Louisville | Northern terminus of SR 333 | |||
| Knox | Knoxville | 47.0 | 75.6 | 1 |  SR 168 east (Governor John Sevier Highway) | Western terminus of SR 168; Trumpet interchange |
| 2 | Maloney Road | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||||
| 3 | Montlake Drive | No southbound entrance | ||||
| 50.8 | 81.8 | Cherokee Trail –UT Medical Center | Trumpet interchange; south end of freeway | |||
| 51.2– 51.5 | 82.4– 82.9 | UT Cherokee Farm campus site / UTMC | Northbound, one right-in/right-out driveway, one entrance ramp; southbound, two right-in/right-out driveways | |||
| 51.5 | 82.9 | J. E. "Buck" Karnes Bridge over theTennessee River | ||||
| 51.8 | 83.4 |   US 11 /US 70 (Neyland Drive/SR 1/SR 158) –University of Tennessee | Interchange; no access to southbound US 129 | |||
| 51.9 | 83.5 | Kingston Pike | Interchange | |||
| 52.8 | 85.0 | I-40 –Nashville,Chattanooga,Lexington,Asheville SR 62 (Western Avenue / 17th Street) | Northern terminus of US 129 and SR 115;Semi-directional T interchange; I-40 exit 386B; Ramp to SR 62 splits from ramp to I-40 east, providing access via Dale Avenue NW; access from SR 169 (Middlebrook Pike) / University Avenue to southbound US 129 is provided by a ramp at the intersection of Ailor Avenue and North 21st Street, which merges with the Exit 386B ramp from I-40 west | |||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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 State Route 115 | |
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| Location | Knoxville–NC state line |
| Length | 52.8 mi (85.0 km) |
State Route 115 (SR 115) is the hidden state route that overlaps the entire route of US 129 in the state ofTennessee. The highway is 52.8 miles (85 km) long and is located entirely inEast Tennessee. It begins inBlount County and ends inKnox County. It is completely unsigned, with the exception of mileposts, with the highway being solely signed as US 129.
Media related toU.S. Route 129 in Tennessee at Wikimedia Commons| U.S. Route 129 | ||
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