City Council OK’s Vote to Build Access Road at Hamilton Place

Chattanooga, TN (WDEF) – It’s been years in the making but plans to build an access road directly linking I-75 to Hamilton Place can begin now thanks to a unanimous vote by Chattanooga city council Tuesday night.

The vote wouldn’t have happened if the company who owns the mall didn’t make a heavy investment in the construction project.

"We have a company that has stepped forward, spent all this time and energy and put their money where their mouth is and are going to take care of a huge problem that we’ve had in that area," said City Council member Larry Grohn.

The Shallowford exit corridor on 75 is notoriously congested and the desired effect of this project is to loosen that up.

"In order to move the project forward CBL is willing to make the investment which will help the entire area in terms of traffic congestion," said Blythe Bailey who is with the Chattanooga Department of Transportation.

The project will cost 40 million dollars.

CBL and Associates who owns the mall is paying 8 million dollars towards the project, which is the city’s portion.

The other 32 million dollars comes from federal funding through the department of transportation.

And whether that funding is available is still up in the air.

The entire project planning takes months and happens in stages.

"TDOT has indicated that with this priority because of the agreement with CBL, they will move the project forward in environmental design but because of the current status of federal funding they make it very clear that there’s no guarantee that this funding will be available when engineering is finished."

TDOT says between 76,000 and 84,000 vehicles travel through this corridor everyday.