News Flash

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – January 6, 2026

RED BANK, TN — The City of Red Bank has been awarded $4,156,198 in federal funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Grant Program to support its Bike Lane and Roundabout Demonstration Project, a major initiative aimed at improving roadway safety across the community.

In 2025, the Red Bank City Commission adopted a Vision Zero resolution affirming the City’s commitment to safer streets for all users. One key goal of the resolution is the establishment of priorities that enhance safe streets citywide. This grant advances that goal by supporting supplemental planning efforts and temporary safety demonstrations, including protected bike lanes and roundabouts along Dayton Boulevard and Morrison Springs Road, as well as targeted safety studies focused on sidewalks, mid-block crossings, and roadway markings.

"We are absolutely thrilled and so very grateful to receive this SS4A grant award,” said Red Bank Mayor Stefanie Dalton. “Over the past five years, we have made great strides toward safer streets for all through roadway reconfigurations, updated infrastructure, and Red Bank’s first-ever dedicated bike lane along south Dayton Boulevard. These SS4A grant-funded demonstration projects will help us take that next step by providing us with real-time data and user experiences that will guide us as we work toward achieving Vision Zero in Red Bank.”

Mayor Dalton added, “This will be a years-long process but one that we are committed to wholeheartedly. Because at the end of the day, our number one priority is not to get you to where you want to go the fastest – it’s to get all of us where we want to go, through whichever mode of transit we’re using, as safely as possible."

The project will include:

· Three safety studies focused on sidewalk maintenance, mid- block pedestrian crossings, and faded roadway markings;

· Three temporary roundabout demonstrations; and

· Three protected bike lane demonstrations on key corridors.

The grant was announced publicly by USDOT on December 23, 2025, following a competitive national selection process. The total estimated cost of the project is $5.2 million, with the City providing the required local match. 

The City of Red Bank proudly recognizes Southeast Tennessee Development (SETD) for applying its expertise to successfully develop and submit the federal grant application. The City also extends its gratitude to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for its ongoing leadership and support of municipalities throughout the region. Red Bank relied on the MPO’s regional Comprehensive Safety Action Plan as key supporting documentation for the grant.

The SS4A program is a nationwide effort to reduce roadway fatalities and serious injuries by helping communities plan and implement data-driven safety improvements.

For more information, visit the City of Red Bank’s website at https://www.redbanktn.gov or contact Greg Tate, Red Bank Public Works Director, at publicworks@redbanktn.gov.

For More Press Releases: Red Bank Press Releases- Past & Present | Red Bank, TN

As the sun set over Red Bank, officials broke ground on the city's first solely owned trail.

Where there now sits a tract of land, inclined and thickly wooded, between U.S. Highway 27 and the Erlanger North hospital campus, there will eventually be the Godsey Ridge Trail.

Project funding is fully covered by a state grant worth just over $400,000, city Parks and Recreation Manager Jeffrey Grabe said to a small group gathered Tuesday for a groundbreaking ceremony.

"Red Bank is a smaller community — 6.5 miles long, 3.5 miles wide, roughly 12,000 residents," Grabe said in an interview after the groundbreaking. "So, when we have almost half-a-million-dollar projects that can happen in Red Bank at no cost to our citizens, it's a huge win across the board."

The design for the trail calls for beginner, intermediate and advanced routes for recreational use.

"Our idea is to really be able to get people to come out and take a walk in the woods that might not normally feel comfortable or feel like it's above their skill level," Grabe said. "So, we have Stringer's Ridge, which is an amazing asset down the road which is around 7.5 miles, and it has some strenuous sections. We then have Walden's Ridge, which is an epic mountain bike park, and for people that don't feel like they're ready for either of those two things, they can come here."

The city plans to develop the trail over three years, with the first phase focused on building and opening the trail, Grabe said. Depending on the weather, the aim is to have the trail open in April.

The second phase of the project will focus on adding a parking lot and updating the existing lot at the Red Bank Community Center on Tom Weathers Drive, Grabe said. The third phase will see a sidewalk added to the trail to make it more accessible for users, as well as crosswalks across Tom Weathers Drive and curb cuts from the intersection of Tom Weathers Drive and Morrison Springs Road to Dayton Boulevard, he said.

Red Bank co-owns Stringer's Ridge park with the city of Chattanooga, Grabe said. But the Godsey Ridge Trail is wholly owned and operated by the municipality — a first for Red Bank.

"What's happened with our community is they really have a very strong sense of pride, and they love living here," Red Bank Mayor Stefanie Dalton said in an interview after the groundbreaking. "They also want to play here and recreate here. They don't want to have to travel to Chattanooga or other parts of Hamilton County to be able to access trail systems and things like that. So, the fact that they'll be able to do that in their own community is just really special."

The Godsey Ridge Trail has been a project over 50 years in the making, Grabe said. In the 1970s, Red Bank received a grant through the Land Water Conservation Fund, a federal program, to build out such amenities as an outdoor pavilion, which eventually became the city's community center, Grabe said. The city looked to establish a trail system on Godsey Ridge at the time, but the plan was put aside because of available funding.

The plan has "gotten life blown back into it" over the past few years, Grabe said.

Without the state grant funding, Dalton said, the city would not have been able to complete Godsey Ridge Trail on its own.

"It's very exciting because it's so accessible to our students at our schools, our teachers at the schools, our community," Dalton said of the trail. "This is really going to advance our 10-minute walk-to-a-park initiative that we've committed to. And the fact that the Tennessee Department of Health recognized the importance of this kind of trail system in our community and fully funded us with an over $400,000 grant is just absolutely incredible."

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