The recently opened Bartlett Road bridge replaces one that dated back to the late 1940s or ’50s and is an improvement in several ways.
Rick McClanahan, director of the city’s engineering Department, said the approximately $1.2 million project is open to traffic although the project has not been officially closed while a few final steps (such as sod placement) are being completed.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) routinely reviews bridges and had determined that the original bridge was in poor condition. McClanahan said it had some beam issues on the underside, but gunite spray (concrete) let it safely reach the end of its useful life.
It was originally a two-span bridge and is now a single-span 68-foot-wide bridge, he said. The older bridge had two beams holding up the bridge with an abutment in the middle. Now it has one beam spanning the channel, and the structure in the middle of the channel that formerly caught debris and drift has been removed.
Formerly, there was a metal walkway bridge carrying a large AT&T cable, and now that has been incorporated into the new structure, between beams on one side. Walkways are tied into the sidewalk.
