Competitors run in the South Chick Sunriser 5k race at the grand opening celebration day of the South Chickamauga Creek Greenway, one of the newest links to connect residents to the Tennessee Riverpark near Amnicola Highway.
A sign located along the new South Chickamauga Creek Greenway talks about the master plan for the Tennessee Rivepark.The City Council voted last week to allow the Chattanooga Department of Transportation to pursue state grant funding for a greenway that would create a bicycle and pedestrian connection between Alton Park and the Tennessee Riverwalk.
The proposed shared-use path would begin near the intersection of Central Avenue and 38th Street and follow an abandoned rail corridor north to West 33rd Street and then west to a portion of the Riverwalk that will soon run parallel to St. Elmo Avenue.
“Residents of Alton Park, they need safe access ways to get to areas like St. Elmo and downtown,” said Councilman Chris Anderson, who represents the area of the proposed project. “It’s an area that those types of things have been neglected in for years. Hopefully this will correct some of that.”
The council voted 6-3 to authorize the city’s transportation department to pursue a Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation for design and construction of the project. If awarded, the grant would cover 80 percent, leaving the city to pay $440,000.
“It’s a pretty big price tag, and it’s specific only to my district, so there were a couple of questions about it,” Anderson said.
Councilmen Larry Grohn, Chip Henderson and Ken Smith voted against the project.
“I’m having a hard time wrapping my hands around” how much benefit the city will receive for a $440,000 investment in the project, Grohn said during the council’s agenda session before last week’s vote.
Grohn compared the $2.2 million total cost with a similarly priced makeover that placed three vehicle lanes, two bicycle lanes and two sidewalks along a stretch of Shallowford Road. Both projects measure approximately a mile.
Chattanooga transportation engineer Bert Kuyrkendall said the proposed trail will enable Alton Park residents more access to the nearby areas, whether for work, shopping or school.
“Basically it’s providing facilities to connect Alton Park, really, to the rest of the city,” Kuyrkendall said.
Grohn also questioned whether the grant’s usage matched its intent.
“I think this is a huge stretch for what the CMAQ grant is meant to do in terms of reducing congestion and reducing air pollution,” said Grohn, who also asked how it might reduce bus riding numbers from Alton Park.
“This really does fit well in that it connects the entire neighborhood to a lot of opportunities in the city,” Kuyrkendall said. “So it really is a great application for the CMAQ.”
The fact that a lot of Alton Park residents use the bus makes for a greater reason to have better walking and biking connectivity, Kuyrkendall said.
Trust for Public Land State Director Rick Wood said the trust is already engaged in negotiations with CSX Transportation to acquire the rail corridor that will be used for the project.
“It’s a really great project,” said Wood. “We’re really excited about this, because it’s right in line with our mission of putting all Chattanoogans within a 10-minute walk of a park.”
A new portion of the Riverwalk that will run from Ross’s Landing to Middle Street, near Crust Pizza, is expected to open later this summer. That’s where the Alton Park Greenway would end.
From there, the Riverwalk is scheduled to be extended even farther south to the St. Elmo village area in 2017.
“The ability to connect neighborhoods to the Riverwalk, especially neighborhoods that have a lot of people that rely on transit, walking or biking for transportation, is extremely important, and that is the case in Alton Park,” city Transportation Director Blythe Bailey said. “We felt like this project was really important.”
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 757-6249.
Contact Paul Leach at pleach@timesfreepress.com or 757-6481.