With Volkswagen, Wacker Chemie AG and other global businesses locating in Southeast Tennessee and its surrounding counties, transportation is becoming a key asset in the Southeast Industrial Development Association region, especially for businesses that use Atlantic ports. Plans for a reliable east-west route through Eastern Tennessee and Western Carolina are being revived to provide greater access for regional companies, suppliers and employees.

Five months of rockslides along a dangerous stretch of U.S. 64, known as “the 15-mph curve,” made the road impassable between November 2009 and April 2010, creating detours of up to two hours for those using the route. The slides brought new urgency to plans for upgrading what is called Corridor K.

State transportation officials are in the midst of a detailed Environmental Impact Survey to evaluate 10 options for improving Corridor K with price tags ranging from $200 million to $1 billion or more. The process, which must meet federal rules to qualify for funding, is lengthy – the report won’t be out until 2013 but the next phase, due out spring 2011, will narrow the options.

Better Access to Help Business, Tourism

The goal is opening up the area to boost economic development and tourism.

“We've got a process and to get this thing right we have to work through it,” says Chester Sutherland, Corridor K project manager for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

The two-lane road now accommodates both commercial trucks and people wanting access to the region’s recreational offerings, which include whitewater rafting. “It is substandard, goes through the Ocoee Gorge and can’t handle the traffic volume,” says Wesley Hughen, TDOT’s regional assistant manager for the area.

The 2010 slides did allow crews to shore up outside shoulders and improve the pass, now called the “25-mph” curve, and a second severe curve was widened, too. The two projects cost about $3 million. A $10.2 million project to widen a 2.6-mile section of U.S. 64 in Polk County, east of U.S. 411 and west of the Ocoee River, is scheduled to wrap up in May 2011.

Current Road Adds Costs

This narrow route has wide impact. Indeed, Corridor K access involves 23 counties and at least three states. A more reliable east-west corridor would open up a supplier network, stimulate job creation and shorten drive times.

A 2008 economic impact survey estimated the completion of Corridor K could create 7,000 regional jobs in targeted industries and related services over a five-year period. More than 80 percent of the businesses that participated in the study cited transportation, particularly access to ports and other intermodal facilities, as having a big role in their ability to compete.

“One of the things we found was the added transportation costs and time element are a burden to a much broader segment of three states than just the communities along the corridor,” says Melissa Ziegler, director of community and economic development services at Wilbur Smith Associates, an engineering consulting firm that produced the study.

As part of the impact study, Wilbur Smith surveyed regional businesses and found many that said uncertain transportation access, cost and reliability meant within four or five years they’d have to decide whether to stay in the region or relocate, Ziegler says.

“It has profound impacts from transportation side and the economic development side,” she adds.


INFRASTRUCTURE ASSETS
Major airports: Lovell Field, Chattanooga; Huntsville International Airport, Huntsville (1 hr., 30 min.), Nashville International Airport (2 hours); Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta (2 hours)
Major highways: Interstates 24, 75, 59; quick connections to Interstates 65, 40, 81, 20, 85
Rail: CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Corp.
Water: Tennessee River, with Center South Riverport/Industrial Park and Port of Nick A Jack; also access via the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to the Port of Mobile.
SOURCE: Southeast Industrial Development Association