BBBTV12 Serving Anderson, Roane, and Morgan Counties
Last week, Lewallen Bridge Replacement Project Coordinator Lynn Murphy, formerly the director of the Clinton Public Works Department, provided an update on the work to replace the iconic, but aging, “green bridge” spanning the Clinch River on Highway 25W.
Blalock and Sons Construction workers are eight months in to the 36-month long project, which is due to be completed by the end of August 2021, and last week, Murphy wrote that those crews are building the footing and foundation for Pier #1. In the update, Murphy writes, “Pier # 1 includes three -6- feet diameter columns of steel reinforced concrete. Columns sit on individual footings. Each footing has forty-two steel beams (pilings spaced 3 feet apart) driven downward until they reach bedrock. Once the three footings are built and the columns are constructed, a steel reinforced concrete cap is built across the top of the three columns. The cap will support nine steel girder beams.”
Pier # 1 is built entirely on dry land. Piers # 2 and 3 each include one underwater column, located in the river inlet beside the concrete walking trail.
Piers 4 & 5 are entirely under the water, each supported by twin underwater columns. Murphy says that the “underwater sections of the new columns are complete and will be connected to and then extended upward.”
Pier 6, the southernmost pier, is complete, according to Murphy.
TDOT”s Lewallen Bridge Replacement Project began in September, and is scheduled for completion on August 31, 2021.
