Staff Photo by Dan Henry

OCOEE, Tenn. — Workers with heavy equipment had cleared all but a few boulders from a rockslide that blocked U.S. Highway 64 this morning when, with a tremble and a roar, another huge slide spilled across the road and into the Ocoee River gorge.

Tennessee Department of Transportation officials said they aren’t sure how long the highway will be blocked, but it will be at least a week, probably longer.

Meanwhile, traffic to and from Ducktown, Tenn., and North Carolina is being detoured on to State Route 68 through Sweetwater and Tellico Plains.

The first slide occurred about 5:30 a.m. at mile marker 17, just across the highway from where commercial whitewater rafting companies begin their tours down river.

One boulder was large enough to block the entire highway, and several others covered the westbound lane of the winding two-lane highway.

Don Longworth, operations chief for the West Polk County Fire and Rescue Squad, said motorists discovered the first slide.

Rock slides are common, he said. “But it is the size and magnitude of this one that is the problem,” he said.

A crew from Cleveland-based Wright Brothers Construction worked until midday clearing the blockage. They were through when a section of mountainside crashed down on the road, pushing boulders andfull-grown pine trees off into the river gorge.

See Wednesday’s Times Free Press for complete coverage.