It used to take Jim Ganoe just a few minutes to drive his van a mile to the post office as he traveled down Noah Reid Road to Shallowford Road.
But beginning Wednesday, Mr. Ganoe, who has lived off Noah Reid Road since 1969, will have to drive about five to seven miles to get to the same post office. Chattanooga closed Noah Reid Road permanently Wednesday morning to raise railroad tracks that head into Enterprise South industrial park to serve the new Volkswagen auto assembly plant.
“How much expense is it going to be to put in an underpass?” Mr. Ganoe asked Wednesday. “It’s just the inconvenience of it.”
Over the last several weeks, residents off Noah Reid Road have complained to city officials about the permanent closing of the road. The area affected is a section of Noah Reid that connects Bonny Oaks Drive to Shallowford Road.
A sign saying the road would close was placed almost two weeks ago. Last Thursday, a community meeting was held, and hundreds of residents came out to tell the city they opposed the plan, Mr. Ganoe said.
One of the problems, according to residents, was that it is dangerous to pull out from Noah Reid onto the busy Bonny Oaks.
Steve Leach, administrator for the Department of Public Works, said the city heard the complaints and, on Wednesday morning, put up a traffic light at the intersection of Noah Reid and Bonny Oaks to improve safety.
But he said there was no way of getting around closing the road. One of three railroads running through the area needs to be raised eight feet because the trains, which could be as much as two miles long, need a more gradual upward grade heading into the VW plant, he said.
The city decided to close Noah Reid Road because traffic counts showed it carried much less traffic than Jersey Pike and Hickory Valley Road, the other two main roads in the area that are crossed by the railroad track, he said.
An underpass with a bridge also would not work, he said. Because of the length of some trains, the bridge would need to be about 16 feet high for cars and trucks to fit, he said, and such a bridge could cost $10 million to construct.
“It would cost an extraordinary amount of money,” he said.
City Traffic Engineer John Van Winkle said city personnel began talks with the state on Friday about getting a traffic light up at the intersection. He said the city knew it would be a safety hazard for residents wanting to get onto Bonny Oaks Drive.
The reason for getting state approval for the traffic light so quickly was of residents’ concerns, he said.
“We were under the gun, and we decided we needed to do it,” he said.
Jennifer Landsbaum, a resident in the Noah Reid Road subdivision, said she did not like the closing of the road and how it was done suddenly. Putting up a traffic signal at least gives residents a chance to get out of the neighborhood safely, she said.
“That will help tremendously,” she said.
VEHICLE COUNTS
City officials said Noah Reid Road had one of the lowest vehicle counts per day of any of the roads that a railroad to Enterprise South crosses. The counts included:
* 10,973: Average amount of vehicles using Jersey Pike per day
* 5,673: Average number of vehicles using Hickory Valley Road per day
* 1,647: Average number of vehicles using Noah Reid Road per day
Source: Chattanooga