Market Street bridge work to resume
Road will be divided into two lanes
The Charles G. Seivers Boulevard bridge over Market Street in downtown Clinton will soon be even further restricted as work resumes on rehabilitation of the structure after a delay of several months.
Already reduced to one lane from two for eastbound traffic when construction originally began last November, the road’s westbound two lanes will now be reduced to one for the duration of the project.
Work is now scheduled for completion next summer.
That will reduce Seivers Boulevard to just two lanes – one in each direction – over the bridge, which spans Market Street and the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks, according to an announcement from the city of Clinton.
“According to reports from the Tennessee Department of Transportation, work on the N. Charles G. Seivers Blvd. (Tennessee 61) bridge over Market Street is set to get back underway soon,” the city announcement said. “Before the project ran into snags, original plans estimated that the construction and repairs would be finished in May of this year.
“Now, reports say an amended construction plan has been approved and the contractor will be returning within the next two weeks to begin work,” the city said last week. “The new contract extends through July 31, 2021.”
According to the report, the expanded work will include removing and rebuilding “bridge overhangs on both sides (sidewalks and parapet walls).”
“This is time consuming and labor intensive work, as the bridge deck steel rebar must be exposed by jack-hammering the concrete from around it, so the new overhang rebar may be properly attached,” the announcement said.
“This work will … require a new traffic plan, and only one lane in each direction across the bridge will be open throughout the project.”
More-extensive deterioration of some bridge structures was found as the original work progressed, necessitating expansion of the then-$1.5 million project by an additional approximately $1.2 million, which the state needed to include in a new contract.
Additionally, work to remove the old paint from the girders under the bridge deck and repaint them had stalled pending resolution of a safety issue regarding the Market Street railroad crossing under the bridge, according to Lynn Murphy, the city’s liaison on the project.
New crossing-safety procedures were awaiting approval by the railroad, he said in July.
