a four-lane bypass in the Morristown–Hamblen urban area from I-81 exit 8 to the Grainger County line at Cherokee Reservoir. Tennessee transportation personnel proposed plans in 1979 to rename US 25E to US 25, as US 25W had largely paralleled or was concurrent to the I-75 corridor. However, the plan was dismissed following dissent from Kentucky officials. Through-out the 1970s to the 1990s, highway improvement projects conducted by a joint-effort between the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), began to widen US 25E between the town of Cumberland Gap to Interstate 81 south of the city of Morristown into a limited-access and partial controlled-access highway. Transportation and engineering personnel in Kentucky would widen the route from I-75 to the city of Middlesboro in preparation of the Cumberland Gap tunnel project. In 1986, funding for the widening of US 25E into a four-lane limited-access highway from Bean Station to the Holston River Bridge at Morristown would be funded through then Governor Lamar Alexander's Bicentennial Parkway Trust Fund, which was supported through increased gas taxes. With the signing of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act in 1991 by the United States Congress, the US 25E corridor from I-75 at Corbin to I-81 at Morristown was designated as High-Priority Corridor 12, making it as part of the National Highway System. Before the completion of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel, US 25E saw increased congestion following an uptick in truck traffic bypassing I-75 through Campbell County and Knoxville. The route is considered an alternate corridor of I-75 attractive to commuters to regional metropolises such as Morristown and Corbin-North Corbin and truckers alike connecting to interstates 81 and 75, bypassing the congested stretch of I-75 in Knoxville and the stretch north of Knoxville through the Cumberland Mountains, which is prone to rockslides. Since the 2000s, congestion from truck and commuter traffic, and the issue of access control has brought several projects in Tennessee and Kentucky on upgrading US 25E up to Interstate Highway standards. Kentucky transportation officials cited the route as a "travel corridor the Eastern Seaboard (via connection to Interstate 40 and Interstate 81 in Tennessee) for through traffic." As of 2013, has been completed of Corridor S along 25E, while remains to be constructed, which consists of rest areas and design and construction of interchanges to meet Interstate Highway standards along the stretch of 25E