Chattanooga Residents Talk Proposed Interstate Widening

As congestion backs up traffic on Interstate 24 around Chattanooga's Moccasin Bend, state officials are looking at adding lanes to the highway. In July, Chattanooga area residents heard from the Tennessee Department of Transportation at two public comment sessions.

Some said they think widening I-24 could alleviate the traffic they're often stuck in, while others argued it isn't a long-term solution.

"One more lane is not going to fix this," Chattanooga resident Dave Lowther said at a meeting.

Lowther said he's seen studies showing that adding lanes actually draws more people onto the highway and doesn't make traffic better. He'd rather see the state invest in railways, especially to take trucks with freight off the interstates, he said.

Right now, plans call for adding another 12-foot lane in each direction, with 12-foot shoulders, plan documents show. Tolled lanes aren't included in the plan.

The state has allocated $246 million for a 10-mile stretch of the widening project, which has been split into three segments.

If approved, officials have said work could begin in 2027 or 2028 and would include replacing some aging bridges. The widening is included in a 10-year plan that ends in 2027.

An average of over 114,000 cars travel both directions of that Moccasin Bend corridor every day, according to a 2024 traffic count.

The corridor has been named one of the top 100 worst bottlenecks in the country, according to the American Transportation Research Institute, placing 56th on that list. Crash rates there are still below the state average.

The Moccasin Bend corridor is a critical freight route for the region and a major connector between manufacturers and distributing hubs across Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, Shannon Millsaps, chief operating officer of Thrive Regional Partnership, said.

"We've heard consistently from freight industry partners that congestion in this stretch creates real challenges, from delivery delays to increased operating costs and safety concerns," Millsaps said in an email.

The partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to growth and development in the region, isn't for or against the widening, Millsaps said.

But she said the group would like to see any changes done with regional input and concerns for the community, environment and economy in mind.

"Data projections indicate truck-borne freight movement through this section of roadway is only projected to increase over the coming years," Millsaps said.

In some places, research has shown adding lanes temporarily eased traffic, Millsaps said. But some others, including studies by the Brookings Institution and National Center for Sustainable Transportation, showed that adding lanes led to more people driving and eventually caused congestion to return or even get worse, she said — a phenomenon known as "induced demand."

"This is why we believe it's important to view widening as one piece of a broader strategy," Millsaps said. "There is no single solution to our region's transportation challenges."

Solutions should include improving multimodal transportation, freight-focused technology and coordinating on land use to reduce pressure on infrastructure in the long term, she said.

Originally published in the Chattanooga Times Free Press on July 9, 2025.