Eight days before voting, all 11 Hamilton County commissioners received copies of a road design contract that acknowledged impacts on Enterprise South Nature Park.
The road project would extend Hilltop Drive to relieve traffic at the Interstate 75 exit to Volkswagen Drive. In public discussion, it’s been unclear whether the commissioners were made aware that the road project could cut through the nature park and the Atlas Mountain Biking Trail. But the documents given to commissioners, obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, make clear that was a possibility.
Documentation provided to commissioners for the $1.5 million Croy Engineering contract called for “design coordination with Enterprise South Nature Park, where the new alignment is expected to impact an existing mountain bike trail.”
The contract also stipulated, “We will work with the county to evaluate public involvement needs and potential trail relocation or mitigation strategies.”