The Chattanooga area’s standing as freight alley may accelerate as companies shift their supply chains east to avoid logjams at West Coast ports, experts said. The result of which would mean even more truck traffic taking to the highways in the region.
“We’re seeing a shift from the West Coast to the East Coast,” said Heather Williams, a vice president at Chattanooga-based Steam Logistics, at a Thrive Regional Partnership summit in Ringgold this week. “We only see more coming our way.”
Already in Chattanooga, officials said 80% of truck traffic is just passing through the city on the way to a final destination. Also, Chattanooga has benefited from the emergence of a cluster of trucking and logistics businesses, helping the city earn the freight alley nickname.
(READ MORE: Chattanooga’s ‘freight alley’ logistics sector)