Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) has been awarded a National Economic Partnerships Grant on behalf of the greater Chattanooga Tri-State region.
The grant will be used for a study to project future freight volumes for the automotive and trucking and floor industries across the 16-county Chattanooga region, identify regional needs and priorities, and recommend solutions. It will also leverage new multi-jurisdictional partnerships to facilitate stakeholder involvement and generate beneficial outcomes for the entire region.
The National Economic Partnerships for Innovative Approaches to Multi-Jurisdictional Coordination is a program led by the Federal Highway Administration to encourage areas of the country to work together and collaborate on issues that span across jurisdictional boundaries, such as freight, safety, congestion, infrastructure, economic development; all of which are often complex in nature. Regional leaders in freight and transportation, such as TDOT, GDOT, and ALDOT, have been convening under Thrive Regional Partnership’s Transportation Collaborative to set the foundation for future collaboration towards identification and progress towards common goals. This recognition of the need to address freight as a region led to the greater Chattanooga region being one of only four megaregions nationwide selected to receive this grant.
“We are grateful to TDOT for taking the lead on this federal opportunity and tackling transportation challenges from a multi-state, regional perspective,” said Bridgett Massengill, president and CEO of Thrive. “By partnering with public and private partners across our tri-state area, TDOT was able to leverage a vision for multi-state, regional collaboration that resulted in securing these federal dollars to the benefit of the entire region.”
Thrive will continue to support this study by serving as the convening arm of the consortium of public, private, and nonprofit partners across the 16-county, tri-state Chattanooga region. Thrive will also be conducting freight partner interviews to better understand the larger freight communities and stakeholders, and their freight issues and project needs, as they relate to the respective industries and truck parking in the region.
This critical input from the users and carriers of freight through the tri-state region will ultimately inform the national, statewide, regional, and local planning processes to ensure coordinated planning across the region and that the mega region's concerns are being addressed.
Thrive Regional Partnership facilitates non-traditional collaboration across sectors and geographic boundaries to ensure responsible, inspired growth in the tri-state greater Chattanooga region.
To stay up to date on Thrive’s Transportation Collaborative, visit
https://www.thriveregionalpartnership.org/transportation-collaborative, and for more information on the NEP grant, visit https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/megaregions/partnerships/.
Expected Outcomes:
The proposed study will project future freight volumes across the 16-county Chattanooga region, identify regional needs and priorities, and recommend solutions. It will also leverage new multi-jurisdictional partnerships to facilitate stakeholder involvement and generate beneficial outcomes for the entire region.
Transferability of Proposed Work as a Resource
One goal of the proposed study would be to develop solutions that could be used in other multi-jurisdictional areas throughout the tristate area and the nation. By establishing an example, this group has the potential to establish standards, best practices, and a framework by which other areas can follow, in order to plan and prioritize multi-state projects which best serve the needs of their areas as a whole, crossing jurisdictional boundaries.
Future of Freight Flows:
The methodology used to estimate and analyze the future of freight flows for the automotive and trucking and flooring industries could be used as a resource for peers. Other MPOs, regions, Megaregions, and state DOTs could then analyze their current and future industries and implications of change on future freight flows in their respective areas. TDOT will serve as a subject matter expert and primary contact for the other areas desiring to utilize this portion of the study.
Truck Parking Locator Map:
The development of a Truck Parking Locator Map could be used as a model that others can follow to analyze truck parking needs along vital corridors and to provide a base data set for future real-time application development. The results and examples of maps can be shared regionally and nationally in the following ways:
• TDOT will share the step-by-step instructions for creating the truck parking maps with other parties that can conduct the survey for other interstate corridors that intersect with corridors in the larger megaregion. Examples of other corridors include but are not limited to I-65, I-85, and I-26.
• TDOT will market and encourage other state DOTs in surrounding states to begin Truck Parking mapping for their respective interstate corridors.
• State DOTs and MPOs involved in the broader study effort and serving on committees can proactively market Truck Parking mapping and implementation instructions with corridors in their respective areas. These individuals can also serve as contacts for the methodology in their respective areas.