Market Street Bridge work now finished; Green Bridge replacement nearly complete
The nearly completed new bridge over the Clinch River in downtown Clinton stretches out alongside the smaller, historic “Green Bridge,” which will be demolished after the new one opens, probably beginning sometime in September. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
And about a mile west, construction crews are getting close to shifting at least some of the Clinch Avenue/Seivers Boulevard (State Route 9) traffic onto the new Lewallen Bridge over the Clinch River – the replacement for Clinton’s historic Green Bridge.
Two lanes of northbound traffic from South Clinton are expected to be shifted onto the new bridge in late August, with the two southbound lanes from Seivers Boulevard expected to be opened to vehicles about two weeks later, according to state and city of Clinton officials.
“The Charles Seivers Boulevard bridge over Market Street is substantially complete,” Tennessee Department of Transportation spokesman Mark Nagi said late last week. “The contractor is completing punch-list items and has been requested by the Norfolk Southern Railway to reinstall connections on the fence.”
Since that project began in November 2019, Seivers Boulevard traffic has been cut to either three or two lanes in the area of and crossing the bridge, depending on the phases of the job, as the contractor worked to rehabilitate parts of the bridge, build new sidewalks, and install a new road surface on it.
“The Market Street Bridge project appears to have been completed on time,” Lynn Murphy, the city of Clinton’s liaison for the TDOT project, said last week.
“The contract expired on July 24,” he said. “The original contract amount was listed at $1,472,943.50, which was amended after additional work was added. The new amount is $2,655,705.05.”
As for the new driving surface on the Market Street bridge, “Rather than an asphalt overlay, the concrete bridge deck received an epoxy polymer coating, then a thickness of granite chips, to create a high-friction surface to help with skid resistance,” Murphy said, adding that “Granite is used rather than limestone, as it is much harder and won’t polish from traffic as easily.
“There are two lifts of the epoxy/stone coating, with a total thickness of less than one inch.”
Gone are the traffic backups on Seivers on both the east and west approaches to the bridge, which were cut to one lane from two in each direction for most of the nearly two years of work on the bridge.
Those lane closures also generated a fair amount of road rage as some drivers declined to move over into the single lane of traffic until the last minute, instead speeding ahead and trying to force their way in front of other vehicles already lined up in the only open lane.
As for the Green Bridge replacement:
“The contractor for the Clinton bridge over the Clinch River will be performing nightly lane closures the first week of August on SR-9 [Clinch Avenue and Seivers Boulevard] to install storm drainage pipe … on both the north and south ends of the bridge,” Nagi said.
“Currently, the contractor is working on an expansion joint in the middle of the [new] structure that would prevent them from swapping traffic as initially proposed for the beginning of August. The anticipated switch is currently towards the end of August.”
Murphy recently posted this update on the new bridge on the city of Clinton website:
“Crews working on the Lewallen Bridge replacement project continue with the following areas:.
“Parapet Walls: The concrete bridge walls are complete on each side, except for two short pieces that will be built once a pending expansion joint installation is finished.
“Underground Utility Installation: The installation of stormwater drainage structures and pipe is nearly complete on the north end of the bridge. The remaining pipe cannot be installed until northbound traffic is moved from the old bridge to the new bridge.
“On the south end of the bridge, manhole structures and stormwater pipe have been installed, after drilling and blasting was performed to remove rock. On both ends of the bridge, several buried conduits are being installed and will contain communications wires and fiber optic cables, which span beneath the new bridge.
“Transitioning Traffic to the New Bridge: Construction continues for the bridge approaches at each end of the new bridge, creating transitions to connect with Clinch Avenue. Two lanes of northbound traffic will be moved to the new bridge within the next few weeks. Soon after, southbound traffic will be moved to the new bridge.
“The two six-feet-wide bike lanes and the eight-feet-wide center divider lane will not immediately be available, but will be opened once all street lighting and handrails are installed, and permanent pavement markings are in place..
“Note: The TDOT Lewallen Bridge Replacement Project began on Sept. 17, 2018.”
Demolition of the old (Green Bridge) will begin shortly after all traffic is moved to the new bridge, Nagi said.
Also, the new bridge will carry the same official name as the one it is replacing, Murphy said: The Hon. William Everett Lewallen Memorial Bridge.