It’s time for a Chattanooga bypass. Local city and county government officials are always looking around at other cities and counties, often far from here, to see what they’re doing so that we can go and do likewise – whether or not it makes sense to do that locally. A Chattanooga bypass does make sense, and would do some good locally.
Today’s headline says TDOT and GDOT are talking about widening I-24 on the west side of Chattanooga to reduce traffic congestion. The primary immediate effect of such a project will be to cripple traffic in that area even more than it usually is, for several years. Surely I’m not the only one to notice that, at least around our fair city, the supposedly best traffic routes seem to be under construction about two-thirds of the time, and are only open to unimpeded traffic about one-third of the time.
Two things could be done immediately to improve traffic flow for local residents who go to and from and through the south and west sides of Chattanooga. The first improvement is extremely simple, would take almost no cost or effort, and would actually restore an earlier condition that worked for years: Put the westbound I-24 sign for speed increase to 65 mph back near Chattanooga Creek rather than at the 176 mile marker; that extra mile-and-a-quarter of higher speed Interstate would make a difference, if nothing else than by legalizing those who already go that fast around Moccasin Bend anyway.
A second great improvement would be to remove the genuine bottleneck at the south end of Broad Street by widening the railroad underpass to two lanes each way, and do the same at the Lookout Valley end of that stretch of Highway 41. Of course, that would logically necessitate the reinstatement of Broad Street to four lanes, and the same in Lookout Valley. Neither of those thoroughfares should’ve been narrowed in the first place.
The biggest improvement of our local driving quality of life, though, would surely come from simply bypassing Chattanooga. Think about it: Every other serious city within hundreds of miles of us has some kind of a bypass, a perimeter, a ring-road, whatever you want to call it. Oh, sure, the notion has its problems, but for once in a century, such a project wouldn’t be our problem. We here in Chattanooga and its immediate surrounds could go our normal daily ways without being stuck in endless traffic jams due to construction.
Think about it. Start with a center point somewhere near downtown Chattanooga, maybe at the I-24 / 127 split, draw a circle of 15 to 20 miles radius, and say, “That’s it. That’s the new Chattanooga bypass.”
The present proposal in today’s news begins at the I-59 / I-24 junction; that’s as good a starting place as any for the south side of our new loop. It’s already on this side of the Tennessee River, it’s already in Georgia, and it’s miles outside Chattanooga. Head southeast from there, send the through-travelers and through-trucks over Lookout Mountain (or under it – make world news with a great tunnel), and keep them out of our hair. Let them pass through Chickamauga for a change, and join I-75 South somewhere near Ringgold or Tunnel Hill.
Seriously – just what percentage of those massive ever-speeding semi-trucks actually stop in Chattanooga? We’re just a congested spot on their necessary trip from somewhere else to somewhere else else; most of them aren’t coming here, the only part we play in their travel is to impede it.
For the through-traffic headed to Knoxville and other parts north, split our new bypass off I-24 somewhere this side of Jasper and go northeast. Go over (or through) Signal Mountain, give the folks at Soddy-Daisy and Sale Creek the new bridge over the Tennessee River that they so desire, and connect with I-75 North somewhere around Ooltewah or Cleveland.
Think of the joy this would bring to all of the smaller outlying towns that would suddenly have their own interstate exit. Think of all the new gas stations, fast-food restaurants, and motels that would spring up, think of all the time we locals would save not being stuck in perennial traffic jams while simply trying to get from one part of Chattanooga to another. And think of the increased highway safety we’d have without having thousands of 40-ton behemoths tailgating us through the town and the county.
Don’t tell me it can’t be done; other states, cities, and counties have done far bigger and far less useful things. Don’t tell me it isn’t needed; anybody who drives around here knows better than that. Don’t tell me it’d hurt business, etc. in our city and county; nothing’s gonna hurt business more than COVID-19 has already done. And don’t tell me it’d cost too much; nobody in highway planning has ever factored in the immediate direct local cost to ordinary folks who find themselves stuck in the endless traffic jams around Chattanooga.
And once that major portion of a Chattanooga bypass has proven itself, then connect the dots from Ringgold/Tunnel Hill to Ooltewah/Cleveland, and we’ll finally have our very own most useful and greatly appreciated perimeter four-lane highway. Don’t bother thanking me for the idea, don’t even think about naming it after me, just do something reasonable to reduce traffic through here for a change.
Oh, no, of course I’m not holding my breath, waiting to see it happen. I may not have that much time left.
Larry Cloud
Lookout Valley