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NASHVILLE – Governor’s Highway Safety Office Director Kendell Poole joined local and state law enforcement agencies today to launch a special enforcement effort along Highway 28 in Marion and Sequatchie Counties called Operation 28. Since 1996, 40 people have died and more than 600 have been injured in crashes along a 30 mile stretch of Highway 28 in Marion and Sequatchie Counties. Operation 28 is part of a special high visibility Click It or Ticket enforcement effort across the state. Law enforcement agencies in Tennessee will be cracking down on those not buckled up, particularly along on rural roadways. 

 

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Department of Transportation crews will once again close a short section of Interstate 440 in Nashville this weekend as a major concrete rehabilitation project continues.  This weekend’s closure is one of several planned for the coming months.  Contract crews will close I-440 Westbound from the Interstate 24 junction to the Interstate 65 junction at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, November 20, 2009. I-440 will reopen no later than 6:00 a.m. Monday, November 23.

 

CHATTANOOGA  – The Tennessee Department of Transportation is now providing a live look at the work to clear a major rockslide along U.S. 64 in Polk County. A live time-lapse camera is now available on TDOT’s U.S. 64 Rockslide web page (http://bit.ly/1Tlc8m). 

 

On Tuesday, November 17, crews with contractor Charles Blalock & Sons, Inc. worked to mobilize equipment to the site while TDOT geotechnical engineers and representatives from Blalock spent the majority of the day ascending and investigating the upper reaches of the rock slope around the perimeter of the slide area. The inspection was conducted to identify critical areas of the rock slope where the contractor will first need to remove loose rock and unstable debris.

 

NASHVILLE – Work is now underway to remove a major rockslide along U.S. Highway 64 in Polk County, Tennessee. The Tennessee Department of Transportation has awarded a $2.1 million emergency repair contract to Sevierville, Tennessee based Charles Blalock and Sons, Inc. The rockslide buried portions of U.S. Highway 64 at approximately 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 closing the major east-west corridor through Southeast Tennessee just east of Chattanooga. TDOT originally estimated at least three weeks for clean-up, but after a closer look at the slide area the removal process will likely take at least eight weeks.

 

NASHVILLE – The Governor’s Highway Safety Office is working to save lives by reminding rural drivers that wearing a safety belt is the single most effective way to prevent deaths and injuries during a traffic crash and it’s also the law in Tennessee. GHSO is partnering with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and state and local law enforcement to conduct a special high-visibility Click It or Ticket enforcement campaign in November.

 

 

NASHVILLE – TDOT today launched the largest bridge replacement and rehabilitation program of its kind in state history.  During a groundbreaking ceremony in Nashville on Thursday, Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely joined state and local officials to break ground on the state’s first project funded through the Better Bridges Program. Work is now underway to replace the aging Murfreesboro Road Bridge over Mill Creek. TDOT’s Better Bridges Program is a four year program approved in 2009 by the Tennessee General Assembly that will utilize bonds to pay for the repair, replacement or rehabilitation of more than 200 structurally deficient bridges in the state. TDOT announced 111 bridges included in the first year of the program on September 11, 2009. 

 

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Department of Transportation crews will once again close a short section of Interstate 440 in Nashville this weekend as a major concrete rehabilitation project continues.  This weekend’s closure is one of several planned for the coming months.  Contract crews will close I-440 Westbound from the Interstate 24 junction to the Interstate 65 junction at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 14, 2009. I-440 will reopen no later than 6:00 a.m. Sunday, November 15.

 

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – U.S. 64 in Polk County is closed at mile marker 17.6 due to a major rockslide near the Ocoee 2 Dam. A portion of the mountainside slid into the roadway at approximately 6:00 a.m. ET this morning. Another slide occurred this afternoon at approximately 1:00 p.m. ET further complicating removal efforts.  Fortunately, TDOT Geotechnical employees on site were able to alert personnel to the possibility of another slide and all people were evacuated before the second slide occurred at 1:00 p.m. 

 

Knoxville, Tenn.—The Tennessee Department of Transportation will perform emergency bridge beam repairs to the I-81 northbound and southbound bridges over U.S. 11E at exit 23 in Greene County over the next two weekends. TDOT crews will close the I-81 northbound bridge on Saturday, November, 14 at 10:00 p.m. ET to begin repairs and will reopen I-81 north by 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, November, 15. TDOT crews will make repairs to the I-81 southbound bridge the following weekend beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, November 21 until 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 22. During each closure traffic will be diverted down the off ramp at exit 23, across U.S. Highway 11E and back on to I-81.