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Officials begin two-way conversion study of downtown Chattanooga’s one-way streets

By Judy Walton December 8, 2017 3 min read

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Downtown’s one-way streets may go away

A do not enter sign warns drivers on Georgia Avenue that Walnut Street street is one way. The Chattanooga City Council will decide at its meeting tonight whether to spend about $70,000 to study doing away with one-way streets in downtown.

One-way signs direct motorists at the corner of Walnut and 6th streets. The Chattanooga City Council will decide at its meeting tonight whether to spend about $70,000 to study doing away with one-way streets in downtown.

Blythe Bailey, Chattanooga's transportation administrator

There are a lot of reasons to consider making downtown streets two-way, and one is that it’s good for business, consultants told local residents Thursday night.

Chattanooga’s transportation department is working with engineering and design firms to study whether Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth streets, along with Walnut, Lindsay and Houston streets, should become two-way streets.

At a public hearing to discuss the study, Wade Walker with Alta Planning and Design showed aerial photos of McCallie Avenue and M.L. King Boulevard in the area of Douglas Street and Campus Drive, before and after both streets went from one-way to two-way in 2002.

The 2002 photo shows block after block of empty lots and shabby buildings.

Map of downtown streets that Chattanooga wants to convert from one-way to two-way.

By 2016, the same area was thick with new buildings housing offices, apartments, restaurants and craft breweries. No doubt the growth of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the spreading circle of downtown renewal deserve credit.