Staff Photo by Andy Johns
TDOT workers remove large rocks that slid down Wheeler Mountain this morning causing Tennessee Highway 30 to be closed for several hours.

PIKEVILLE, Tenn. — All lanes were opened early this afternoon on a Bledsoe County highway after road crews cleared an early morning rock slide.

Both lanes of Highway 30 West are now open, according to Jennifer Flynn, a spokeswoman for Tennessee Department of Transportation Region II.

The rock slide occurred about 2:30 a.m. near Raven's Rock on Wheeler Mountain, according to officials.

TDOT crews used bulldozers to push the rocks and a few fallen trees off the road and down the opposite shoulder.

Officials said drivers should use caution on the highway, which provides access to Taft State Prison, Fall Creek Falls State Park and Spencer, Tenn., in Van Buren County because the guardrail will not be replaced until next week. Motorists are being asked to take Old Spencer Highway as an alternate route.

Ms. Flynn said the cause of the slide has not been determined, but said slides are not uncommon on mountain roads this time of year.

“That just happens occasionally,” she said.

Pikeville resident Jamie Johnson, one of drivers turned away at the road closure, wished the slide would have happened some other day.

"You've got to be kidding me," he said as he pulled up to the detour site in his Ford F-150, towing a fishing boat.

"I get to go fishing one day and I'm running late."

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press