Audio clip
Steve Leach
Work on a long-planned road linking Interstate 75 with the Volkswagen plant and Highway 58 could start in about a month, officials said Monday.
The work will build the first 1.5-mile, $9.5 million leg of the project that will stretch through Enterprise South industrial park.
“We knew we always needed a strong connection to the Enterprise South site” from the interstate, said Chattanooga Public Works Administrator Steve Leach.
Today, bids are to be opened to cut into two ridges and fill a pair of small valleys with dirt, he said. The dirt will level about 2,000 feet of the planned road from the existing I-75 interchange, the official said.
Within a few months, another cut and fill contract will be awarded to level a separate portion of the road, he said.
ROAD PLAN
A new roadway from I-75 to near the planned VW plant will be a four-lane artery, according to officials.
In October, the roadway itself will be roughed out, said Mr. Leach.
Dennis Malone, assistant city engineer, said the parkway will run to an intersection near the VW plant. There, a new boulevard will connect from the parkway to an existing road and cul de sac at the plant, he said.
The road is expected to open in May 2010, Mr. Malone said.
Mr. Malone said the parkway will be paid from 80 percent federal money and 20 percent local. The boulevard piece will be split between the city and Hamilton County, he said.
Mr. Leach said the federal portion comes from about $18 million that U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., secured five years ago.
Mr. Leach said he has been working on the road project for at least a decade. While the industrial park can be accessed from Bonny Oaks Drive, he said officials knew the direct I-75 link was required.
“We knew we needed that to access a first-class industrial park,” Mr. Leach said.
He said the parkway also will access the huge public park being built on the former Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant site.
Mr. Leach said the road work is being done in stages so the dirt can have time to settle before paving.
Concerning the stretch of parkway from the Volkswagen area to Highway 58, Mr. Malone said that part hasn’t been designed yet.
Also, no date has been set by which it is to be finished, he said.
The Volkswagen plant is to start production in early 2011 and employ about 2,000 people. The German automaker plans to make a new midsize sedan.
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 ...
Or login with:
New Account