The Georgia Department of Transportation in cooperation with the Federal Railroad Administration and the Tennessee Department of Transportation will hold three public information open houses to discuss the proposed Atlanta-Chattanooga High Speed Ground Transportation project.

The first open house is scheduled for Tuesday, November 15, 2016 from 6 until 8p.m. at the Georgia DOT General Office, located at 600 West Peachtree Street in Atlanta. The second meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 16 from 6 until 8 p.m. at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency – Development Resource Center, located at 1250 Market Street # 2000, Chattanooga, TN 37402. A third public information open house is scheduled for Thursday, November 17 from 6 until 8 p.m. at the Dalton City Hall and Administrative Building, located at 300 West Waugh Street, Dalton, GA 30720.

The purpose of these open houses is to provide the public with opportunities to review the recently released Tier 1 Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Atlanta-Chattanooga High Speed Ground Transportation project. Residents of northwest Georgia and east Tennessee interested in learning more about the study are encouraged to attend the meetings and express their thoughts and preferences.

“We would like to hear the viewpoints and concerns of all area residents," says Dewayne Comer, district engineer at the Georgia DOT office in Cartersville.

The Federal Railroad Administration, the Georgia Department of Transportation, and the Tennessee Department of Transportation recently reached a major milestone for the Atlanta to Chattanooga High Speed Ground Transportation project, which considers high speed passenger service to connect Atlanta, Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Tier 1 DEIS presents three corridor alternatives to connect the two cities and a broad evaluation of the potential environmental impacts of each alternative.

“The Georgia DOT strongly believes that since this project is intended to serve the people of east Tennessee and northwest Georgia, the ideas and preferences of these people are important,” Comer explains. “These meetings will provide the public with information about the three alternatives under consideration, high speed ground transportation technologies considered, and the criteria that can be employed to identify a preferred corridor alternative.”

These three open houses will be informal, and the public is invited to attend anytime during these hours. There will be no formal presentations. A court reporter will be available at each open house to allow the public an opportunity to make verbal comments about the project.