Chattanooga Launches Program to Automatically Reroute Traffic Around Hamill Road Railroad Crossing

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (WDEF)- Chattanooga will begin to automatically reroute emergency services and commenter traffic when a train is present at a Hixson railroad crossing.

“It’s going to be an interconnected signaling device where the lights will be flashing when the train occupies the crossing and that way people will understand not to take that particular route,” said Robin Smith, Tennessee State Representative (R.)

As Hixson and Chattanooga continue to grow so does the number of trains.

When cars are stopped at the Hamill Railroad crossing in Hixson, it can mean the difference in life or death due to people possibly being blocked off from getting to Hixson Memorial hospital which is an eighth of a mile away.

“Time is tissue relative to taking care of an intervening when you have chest pain or symptoms of a stroke. The detour if you’re sitting on the opposite side of the track from Hamel Road I need to take a detour to get to the hospital that’s an eight-minute detour so it’s significant enough to make a true material impact,” said Smith.

Chattanooga will begin to automatically reroute emergency response and commuter traffic around Hamill road crossing through the city’s fiber network.

“Being the gig city we have a lot of fiber that runs underneath our infrastructure and we were able to tap in some data and make sure that there was some communication there. This is a terrific example of why infrastructure serves our community,” said Smith.

This workaround has been something Representative Smith has been working towards for years.

She said this is a promising start but a permanent solution will be on the way.

“I already have been talking with US Congressman Chuck Fleischmann‘s office in addition to US Senator Bill Hagerty‘s office to get some federal funding for a permanent solution,” said Smith.

Nearly $95,000 in Tennessee Department of Transportation grant funding will be used for smart city improvements at the crossing.