Hwy. 116 closed for ‘at least a month’
An entire section of pavement has about collapsed and the road is closed between Lower Briceville Road (State Route 116) and Slatestone Road due to torrential flooding that occurred earlier over the weekend.
“I’ve heard unofficial estimates for the road repairs to be at least a month. We are contacting TDOT [the Tennessee Department of Transportation] today to see if they have a timeline,” reported Anderson County Sheriff Department Chief Deputy Mark Lucas on Tuesday morning in an email.
Traffic is being detoured onto Lower Briceville Road, but the detour route will be “almost impossible” for large trucks because it is a narrow road, Lucas said.
“We will be doing extra patrols to monitor the traffic but Briceville residents that live on Lower Briceville Road are concerned, not only due the increased traffic volume, but also the dangers of large trucks using this narrow road. There isn’t really another option to re-route the traffic as Andy’s Ridge Road is a much longer detour and is an even more narrow, curvy road,” Lucas said.
Anderson County School System cancelled schools Monday due to flooding on roadways.
Classes resumed on schedule Tuesday, with Briceville Elementary School buses being re-routed to Simpson Road, an old road that runs parallel to Slatestone and State Route 116, as a detour.
The detour route is having little to no effect on school transportation in Briceville, said Anderson County Schools Director of Safety and Transportation Joe Forgety in a phone interview Tuesday morning.
“It’s a minor inconvenience. We can still get in and out until they [TDOT] can get the road fixed. It really isn’t affecting anything,” said Forgety.
Several TDOT and Anderson County Highway Department trucks were at Briceville Highway early Tuesday morning working to repair the collapsed section of road.
