Attention Chattanooga residents (AND those considering moving to Chattanooga): Big things are coming!
Chattanooga Airport
Chattanooga Airport officials plan to open construction bids, potentially before year’s end, in a key move that may clear the way to the most extensive revamp to the passenger terminal since the 1990s.
Building a new concourse to hold more gates for planes, adding another security lane for boarding passengers, and putting in a new restaurant and more restrooms past the security checkpoint are part of the work.
In all, more than 60,500 square feet of new terminal space and renovations are proposed by the airport in the roughly $28 million project that could start as early as spring.
Terry Hart, the airport’s chief executive, said Monday [November 29th], that construction bids are slated for opening on December 21st, although that date could slide into January because there’s a lot for contractors to bid on.
Electric Vehicle Supply Chain
Chattanooga is paving the way for a new electric vehicle supply chain in America as battery materials maker Novonix opens a factory in the city, the nation’s energy secretary said. Secretary Jennifer Granholm said at the inauguration of the $160 million Novonix plant on Riverfront Parkway that the factory is helping create “a whole ecosystem” related to the production of electric vehicles and the batteries that power them. “This is exactly what every state and community should be doing,” she said.
Granholm said President Biden is “bringing back the supply chain” from overseas for battery-powered vehicles, along with good-paying jobs. “The supply chain for batteries and electric vehicles has been historically abroad,” Biden said, adding that reshoring it to America will help “make the future of our energy system secure.”
Using a hockey analogy, Granholm said companies such as Nova Scotia-based Novonix and its chief executive, Chris Burns, are seeing ahead and “the puck has landed in Chattanooga.”
The Novonix facility on Riverfront Parkway is to make up to 10,000 tons per year of synthetic graphite and employ nearly 300 workers. That product is used in utlra-long-life, high-performance anode material for lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and power grid storage. Burns, who formerly work for electric carmaker Tesla, said the electric vehicle supply chain in North America is lacking and Novonix is helping usher in “a new ear of electrification.”