This Fall's Two New Chattanooga Paths Pave the Stretch That Used to End the Trip

Darrin Ledford, deputy chief of staff for the city, has ridden Manufacturers Road out to Moccasin Bend more times than he can count. Standing on the new greenway at its opening on Saturday, September 26, he told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that as he watched the trucks go by, "for the first time in my life, I felt like we finally had a safe path."

Two weeks later, on October 9, a second path opened on the other side of the city, at South Broad Street and West 33rd. Together they add less than two miles of pavement. Each covers the one stretch that used to make an outing awkward or unsafe, and its value comes from what sits at either end.

A mile and a half that used to be shared with tractor-trailers

The Moccasin Bend Connector is a paved path of nearly 1.5 miles along Manufacturers and Hamm roads. It was built to carry people on foot and on bikes to the National Park Service trails in the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District. Before it existed, the route meant sharing the road with tractor-trailer traffic. The idea goes back to planning work in the 1980s, but construction did not get going in earnest until 2015. Greg Herold, an engineering manager with the city's public works department, put the cost from design through construction at $4.2 million.

North Shore resident Jim Johnson summed up the math in the same Times Free Press story: "This is barely a mile and a half, but it plugs into so many other stretches of trail."

From Renaissance Park to the trailheads

The route starts near the Olgiati Bridge, follows Manufacturers Road, then turns down Hamm Road to Moccasin Bend Road, according to Chattanoogan.com's description of the planned alignment. Here's a practical way to ride or walk it from the North Shore:

1. Park at the Renaissance Park lot at 54 Manufacturers Road, which sits right on the route, or at the Coolidge Park lot at 99 River Street, a little farther back toward the Riverwalk.
2. Follow the connector along Manufacturers Road and down Hamm Road.
3. Turn left on Moccasin Bend Road. The Blue Blazes Trail trailhead is 0.9 mile ahead on the right, according to the Park Service.

The Park Service describes Blue Blazes as a two-mile loop near the southern end of the peninsula. Of the two developed trails in the district, the other is the Brown's Ferry Federal Road trail. Brown's Ferry is a 1.2-mile round-trip footpath. Bikes, vehicles, and horses are not allowed on the trace, leashed dogs are welcome, and the posted hours are 6 a.m. to sunset. So for cyclists, the paved part of the outing ends at the trailhead, and the rest is on foot. Both NPS trail pages were last updated years ago. The park's current conditions page is where any closure would be posted, and as of late October it listed no alerts for Moccasin Bend.

On South Broad, the half mile is mostly a crossing

The first phase of the Alton Park Connector runs just under half a mile on West 33rd Street, from St. Elmo Avenue to the Borough 33 apartment complex. It follows a former railroad line, has lights and new trees along its length, and adds a crosswalk across South Broad Street for people on foot and on bikes. The Times Free Press reported the first phase cost just over $2 million. Funding came partly from a $500,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, with the rest from city capital funds, and the Borough 33 developers also contributed.

The crosswalk ties the path into the Riverwalk system on the other side of Broad Street. The city describes the Tennessee Riverwalk as a paved path of about 16 miles linking downtown with historic St. Elmo, and lists the Wheland Foundry trailhead at 1503 Middle Street. A little farther north, Local 3 News reported that the W. 26th Street trailhead outside Erlanger Park reopened after months of construction. Its public parking went from nine spaces to 26. Erlanger Park, home of the Chattanooga Lookouts, opened in April 2026.

Here's how the two new paths compare:

What each path is waiting on

Both openings are first pieces, and what's planned next shows where each path is headed.

At Moccasin Bend, there's an open field just off the greenway on Hamm Road that the Park Service plans to turn into the front door of the archeological district. Superintendent Brad Bennett told the Times Free Press that the first phase is set to break ground in 2027. It will add off-street parking, restrooms, a bioswale to filter runoff, and a pathway to the Tennessee River. That means today's trip is a paved approach to two older trails. Once the gateway is built, the connector will lead to a site designed for people who arrive on foot or by bike.

In Alton Park, the remaining stretch runs from Borough 33 through the neighborhood. Noel Durant, Tennessee state director for the Trust for Public Land, said that work requires designing a corridor across the neighborhood, managing stormwater, and cleaning up contaminated brownfields. WTVC reported that the next phase would reach Southside Community Park, and Durant estimated design would take "under a year" before work moves toward construction.

The funding has shifted along the way. In May 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency terminated a $20 million grant meant to help complete the connector. The Trust for Public Land has kept the project moving with a $6.4 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development plus philanthropic support, though Durant expects a capital gap to fundraise as the design is finalized.

In the Times Free Press account, interstates and other main corridors historically cut neighborhoods like Alton Park off from opportunities in the city. Community advocate Maria Noel's point was that because those connections were missing, people went through neighborhoods like Alton Park instead of to them. She described the connector as opening up economic and recreational opportunities and inviting people into the neighborhood:

"We're hoping that this is just the beginning of what can be an even greater opportunity for people."

Investment around the corridor is still under construction. Station 33, the $130 million mixed-use project at South Broad that hosted the ribbon-cutting, broke ground August 20. Local reporting describes five buildings with a 120-room Aloft hotel, residences, office and retail space, a food hall, and a pedestrian plaza with a splash pad, set to be finished in fall 2028. Durant's longer-term goal reaches well past West 33rd Street: connecting South Chattanooga "from the base of Missionary Ridge to East Lake Park all the way to the river."

Fitting both into a November afternoon

The two paths keep different hours. Brown's Ferry, at the far end of the Moccasin Bend Connector, is posted open from 6 a.m. to sunset, and November afternoons are short. A late-day outing there means turning around while there's still light. The West 33rd Street path has its own lights.

Near the South Broad end, the Riverwalk runs south toward St. Elmo, where WTVC reported spring opening dates for Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams and SoHi Pizza & Mountain Top Bar near the Incline Railway. For a longer weekend ride, there's also unpaved singletrack. The Tennessee River Gorge Trust opened the second phase of the Aetna Mountain Trails on August 21. That added four miles of progressive singletrack and brought the system to eight miles, with the trailhead up River Gorge Drive.

Have a favorite way to put the Moccasin Bend Connector or the West 33rd Street path into a weekend loop? I'd love to hear it. Knowing which trailheads, crossings, and new connections shape a neighborhood's daily routine is part of how I advise clients at The Trend Property. If any of these routes ever comes up in a conversation about your next move, let's connect.