Chickamauga Park To Welcome Bypass
By Ed Ballam September '01 issue

FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. - Officials and visitors at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park are looking forward to the opening of a highway bypass that's expected to reduce heavy traffic through the battlefield.

The new U.S. Highway 27 bypass is expected to be completed in October with an official dedication planned for Oct. 13.
"The roundabout will provide a limited access route around the historic battlefield area and, we hope, significantly reduce the amount of traffic through the core battlefield area," said John Ogden, the park's historian and spokesman.

Lafayette Road currently handles about 18,000 north/south vehicles every day, many of them large trucks traveling at highway speeds. The new 6-mile long bypass skirts the military park to the east making a sort of jug handle around most of the park.

Ogden said the noise and visual intrusion of the thousands of vehicles buzzing through the center of the park is significant.

U.S. 27 is one of the nation's longest north/south arteries, extending from Michigan to Florida, according to the National Park Service (NPS). It is a four-lane road for the entire distance, save the section that goes through the battlefield. The road serves local commuters and commercial traffic principally traveling from northwest Georgia and Chattanooga, Tenn.
Ogden said that visitor safety is a major concern with the large volumes of traffic making the interpretation of some critical areas of the park difficult if not impossible. Stopping a vehicle or walking along the edge of Lafayette Road in its current traffic pattern is very hazardous. The park looks forward to being able to interpret sites within the core battlefield.

When the bypass is open, park officials plan to petition local and state authorities for a reduced speed limit on Lafayette Road to make it safer for visitors and discourage motorists from using the route as a shortcut.

According to the National Park Service, about 70 percent of all vehicle accidents within the park occur on U.S. 27. Relocating the highway to bypass the park has been discussed for a long time according to the NPS.

The need to upgrade from a two-lane road to a four-lane highway provided the "perfect opportunity" to relocate the artery and reducing the negative effect the traffic had on the park, according to NPS.

Ogden said recently that the contractor has assured park officials that the highway will be completed by the Oct. 13 ceremony which will be attended by dignitaries.

The dedication will be held three weeks after the battle's 138th anniversary. Ogden said events for the anniversary might not be as substantial as in the past because of the highway dedication ceremonies.

"I would rather wait and make a bigger deal out of 140th anniversary," he said.

In August 1890, Congress established the Chickamauga/Chattanooga National Military Park, "for the purpose of preserving and suitably marking for historical and professional military study, the fields of some of the most remark-able maneuvers and brilliant fighting in the war of the rebellion."

The Congressional act was the first step for the creation of the first and still largest national military park and laid the foundation for the national historic park concept in the U.S.