TN.gov Newsroom

 

NASHVILLE – Tennessee has been selected by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) to participate in the Policy Academy on Shaping a New Approach to Transportation and Land Use Planning. The state will develop a Corridor Management Agreement in one of the state’s urban areas that will later be applied to other transportation corridors across the state. The goal is to create a system that helps local planning agencies learn how to make land use decisions that better coordinate with transportation decisions made at the local and state level. Colorado, Maryland, Washington and West Virginia have also been selected to participate in the program.

 

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – In an effort to conserve resources and to improve air quality, the Tennessee Department of Transportation is celebrating a conservation milestone. As of this week, fueling stations at TDOT’s Region One Complex Office now offer E85 fuel for state vehicles. E85 is a blend of ethanol and gasoline that burns cleaner than regular gasoline thus reducing a number of airborne pollutants.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely will visit the U.S. 64 rockslide sites in Polk County on Friday, March 19. Nicely will update the progress made on clearing the slides and improving the roadway and the schedule for reopening U.S. 64.  

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Department of Transportation crews will close two interchange ramps on Interstate 440 in Nashville this weekend as a major concrete repair project continues. The closures are as follows:

 

      Ramp from I-440 West to Interstate 65 South

       Ramp from Interstate 65 North to I-440 West

 

The ramps will close beginning at 4:00 a.m. Saturday, March 20, 2010 and will reopen no later than 6:00 a.m. Monday, March 22, 2010.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Work continues to progress on the stabilization and clearing of the rockslide along U.S. 64 at Mile Marker 17 in Polk County with around the clock work set to begin Tuesday. Construction crews continued scaling loose rock and debris from the eastern side of the slope with machinery today as heavy equipment worked along the roadway and river bank breaking up large rock and hauling away debris from the site.  Rock bolting crews worked through the evening and early morning hours drilling 15 ft., 25 ft. and 40 ft. deep holes along the upper and middle sections of the central part of the slope in order to grout and install rock bolts.  Daytime and night time crews will continue working a 24/7 schedule, weather permitting, until the slide remediation and cleanup is completed.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Over the weekend, daytime construction crews continued hauling slide debris from the site and reconstructed the 275 ton crawler crane approximately 30’ to the east so that hand and mechanical scaling could continue on the eastern face of the slope.  The contractor resumed scaling today and will continue until the slope is free of loose rock and debris that might otherwise serve as a hazard to workers and future traffic on the roadway surface below.

 

 

 

Knoxville, Tenn. – Motorists using U.S. 25/70 (State Route 9) will need to take an alternate route Wednesday, March 17 when TDOT bridge inspectors close the bridge over the French Broad River in Newport to perform a routine bridge inspection.
 

U.S. 25/70 (State Route 9 or East Broadway) in Newport will be closed from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. on March 17. Motorists will be detoured onto U.S. 321 and State Route 340.
 

Knoxville, Tenn. –  Behind the scenes work has allowed the Tennessee Department of Transportation to temporarily open all lanes of U.S. 441 (The Spur) in Sevier County.

 

Emergency contractor Charles Blalock and Sons, Inc. is currently working offsite utilizing molds to pour concrete panels that will form a stained rock façade which will cover the recently constructed retaining wall. The retaining wall was built during phase one of the project to stabilize the rock slope above the roadway.

 

TDOT estimates crews will begin to install the rock façade during the week of March 15. At that time one southbound lane will close to allow crews to safely work on phase two of the rockslide repairs.