Market Street Bridge work continues to snarl traffic

December 30, 2020

Work is in high gear now on the refurbishing of the Charles G. Seivers Boulevard (Tennessee 61) bridge over Market Street in downtown Clinton, which was restarted in late October after a delay of several months.

With Seivers Boulevard down to one lane on the bridge in each direction, traffic backs up for several blocks during high-flow periods. There will be no relief from that until the project is completed this summer, city officials said.

“Crews have used concrete saws and hydro blasters to remove a section of concrete bridge deck, and they have exposed the old steel rebar,” said Lynn Murphy, the city of Clinton’s coordinator on the state project.

“Each piece of the old rebar will have a new piece of epoxy-coated rebar attached to it, using tie wire to hold them together and create a five-feet long lap joint,” he said. “Each piece of this old rebar will also have a new piece attached to it.

“The new rebar will extend toward the sidewalk and will be attached to the old rebar by using a mechanical joint device. This device uses set screws to connect the old rebar and the new.”

Then, Murphy said, “Once the new rebar steel is in place and all form work is built, concrete will be poured to create a new section of bridge deck, which includes the overhang. A new concrete sidewalk and parapet wall will then be formed and poured on top of the new deck overhang.

“Once completed, this same process will take place on the opposite side of the bridge, after traffic lane closures are shifted.

“Further work remaining includes a continuation of the re-coating of the steel girder beams above Market Street.

“This requires more sandblasting, old paint recovery, and a new paint application.”

The bridge had already been reduced to one lane from two for eastbound traffic when construction originally began in November 2019.

But in mid-October, the road’s westbound two lanes were reduced to one for the duration of the project.

Work is now scheduled for completion by July 31 on the bridge, which spans Market Street and the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks. Before the project ran into problems in the spring, original plans were for the repairs to be finished this May. A new, expanded contract was executed in October, extending the project’s completion date.

According to the city, 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 city’s earlier announcement said.

More-extensive deterioration of some bridge structures were 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, Murphy said.