Hixson’s Memphis Drive still swampy, but a solution is in the works

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Residents of Memphis Drive near Dupont Parkway in Hixson say things haven’t changed a lot for them this year.

Every time there’s a big rain event, the backyards of many homes turn into swamps.

But help is on the way.

Residents of this quiet neighborhood in Hixson last year successfully argued against an overflow tank being built at the end of Memphis Drive.

The city decided to move it to a different location, but an overflowing creek and faulty drainage still causes them problems.

Chattanooga’s Director of Waste Resource Division, Michael Partick told us “Now this past rain event, Wednesday and Thursday, if we have other rain events similar to that one, yes, it will overflow.”

The storage tower which received such a public outcry a couple of years ago, will be relocated some 8 miles away, just over the ridge from the Moccasin Bend treatment facility.

And Patrick says there is a firm plan on the table.

“Now we have a project that we’re working on to help with that issue, and it involves, up-sizing about seventy seven hundred feet of that interceptor, and the installation of an additional pump station down near the Champions Club.”

The remediation project for the Memphis drive area will cost approximately 15 million dollars.

But the entirety of the projects citywide, will cost around 300 million dollars when it’s completed.

Patrick adds “This last rain event produced roughly fifty overflows throughout the city. So while Memphis Drive is getting a lot of air time, it’s not the only place we have problems. And we have projects for every problem.”

It will come as good news to that Hixson neighborhood, but the solution is still about 2 years away.