Region Enjoys Mobility by Land, Water and Air
Published Feb 16, 2009
Five airlines fly in and out of Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport.
A solid transportation infrastructure is the core component of any well-thought-out push for generating business. With solid ways to move shipments and people on land, water or in the air, it’s no wonder that the SEIDA region is drawing such industrial powerhouses as Volkswagen.
Work is being done to expand the area’s roadways as well as plan new routes for coming years. Intervention at the federal level is ensuring that the Chickamauga Lock – one of the busiest on the Tennessee River – will remain viable well into the future. And Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport now offers nonstop flights to 10 cities in the Southeast, Middle Atlantic and Midwest, plus Texas.
On the ground, the Southeast Tennessee Rural Planning Organization is working on Corridor K, a proposed highway that would run from Interstate 75 at Cleveland, Tenn., into western North Carolina, where it would connect with U.S. 23 near Sylva.
The corridor is one of many RPO projects, as the organization is tasked with collaborating with local officials on various types of multimodal transportation, says Chuck Hammond, coordinator.
“The work on Corridor K has been a focus for a long time, but because of funding slowdowns we’re just now sitting down to take a look at what our future course of action is,” Hammond says. “Corridor K has the potential to bring the Chattanooga market to the North Carolina market and the Eastern Seaboard, even opening up the Savannah (Ga.) port to us. That would create a lot of relationships for the businesses that are here and those that are coming.”
The biggest of those, at least for now, is Volkswagen, and Hammond says the RPO is definitely aware of the auto giant’s needs. “We’ll have to improve our transportation to move goods and services between their plants and suppliers,” he says. “That’s why Corridor K is starting to move again. It’s a long process, but we’re progressing on it.”
Unlocking the River
The region’s navigable waterway, the Tennessee River, has long played a part in commerce, and that’s continuing, thanks to a $365 million overhaul and upgrade of the Chickamauga Lock.
“The lock experienced a problem called concrete growth, which was going to force it into closure as early as 2012,” says U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Chattanooga. “Now we’ve built a dam just downstream from the current lock and dam, so soon we’ll be able to drain the area to give the workers a floor on which to build a new lock.”
The new lock will be twice the size of the existing structure, covering an area the size of four football fields. The lock it’s replacing has been seeing the equivalent of 150,000 tractor-trailer loads come through each year, despite being the only single-wide lock on the river. That volume alone makes the project vital, Wamp says.
“We can’t let this lock close and put that many trucks back on the highways,” he adds. “This is the most efficient, environmentally responsible mode of transportation, but it’s just been a bottleneck. This lock is absolutely critical” to the area’s future.
The widening project is scheduled for completion in 2014.
More Airport Connections
Things are also looking up at the Chattanooga airport, which saw a 21 percent jump in passenger volume in 2007, when more than 600,000 travelers used it.
Despite the subsequent economic downturn, initial tabulations show that numbers for 2008 held fairly steady.
“Thanks to strong community support and dedicated airline partnerships, the last several years have brought remarkable growth to the Chattanooga Airport,” says Mike Landguth, president and chief executive officer of the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport Authority. “With five airlines and 10 nonstop destinations, along with a full complement of corporate and general-aviation options, we are seeing more and more regional passengers flying Chattanooga. These growing options also support regional economic development efforts, ensuring local businesses can connect to the world.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Ian Curcio
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