Audio clip
Bill Payne
Workmen at Enterprise South industrial park have moved nearly half the 6.5 million cubic yards of dirt needed to ready the site for Volkswagen’s new assembly plant, an official said Tuesday.
But Chattanooga city engineer Bill Payne said workers are “very close” to keeping the schedule for the Nov. 1 start of construction on the $1 billion plant.
“Weather will be the deciding factor,” he told the Chattanooga Industrial Development Board.
The panel agreed to a contract to widen a key construction road into Enterprise South to help push ahead on the building of the assembly plant.
The board will spend up to $300,000 to widen the road from 18 feet to 40 feet.
Mr. Payne said Tennessee Dirtworks LLC was the low bidder for the project.
He said up to 90,000 cubic yards of earth per day are being moved at the 1,350-acre Enterprise South location.
Steve Leach, the city’s public works administrator, said while Mr. Payne talked about the horizontal part of the work at the site, officials are starting to also get into the vertical aspect as well.
Conversations with engineering/architectural firm SSOE about the 1.9 million-square-foot plant are under way, Mr. Leach said.
“It’s all moving forward at a very fast pace,” he said.
Mr. Payne said about 225 people are working at Enterprise South.
Volkswagen officials said they want to start pouring concrete in November.
Board member Richard Ebersole asked if it was possible for the panel to receive a monthly report of what’s being paid under the contract.
Daisy Madison, the city’s chief financial officer, said that will be possible when payments start being made.
Volkswagen officials want to produce 150,000 cars a year at the plant, which is expected to employ about 2,000 people.
Mike Pare, the deputy Business editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, has worked at the paper for 27 years. In addition to editing, Mike also writes Business stories and covers Volkswagen, economic development and manufacturing in Chattanooga and the surrounding area. In the past he also has covered higher education. Mike, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida Atlantic University. he worked at the Rome News-Tribune before ...
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