Rocky Top bridge rebuild completed
The rebuilt Meadow Street Bridge in Rocky Top is expected to be opened to traffic in about two weeks, according to the city. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The concrete deck of the bridge has been poured and is now curing, which could take another two weeks before traffic will be allowed to begin using the span, Rocky Top City Manager Michael Foster said this week.
Residents of the neighborhoods that use the bridge have been without it for about 11 months. The short bridge carries Leach Avenue over a tributary of Coal Creek near downtown.
The previous bridge was removed last May, and residents who use it were initially told it would take only about three months to get the new one built and opened.
“The new bridge is a lot bigger than what was there, and it has a sidewalk on it,” Foster said.
Most of the delay came because the city had to move a waterline that was unexpectedly found when the old bridge was demolished.
Work was then stopped until the city could determine where the line ran and what customers were served by it, and how to move it to allow bridge construction to proceed.
City crews replaced the line in late November, after waiting for water pipe and other supplies that were on backorder.
The bridge project itself, with a final bid price of $263.667, is being paid for by the state under former Gov. Bill Haslem’s Improve Act, which raised the state gasoline tax to pay for bridge and road projects statewide, Foster said.