Answers elusive as slide cleanup begins

When Vanessa Bateman got a call Tuesday to come to the Ocoee Gorge to check the stability of a bluff over U.S. Highway 64, she didn't know she would become a hero.

"I was just out there doing my job," said the 38-year-old geotechnical engineer with the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

But as highway workers chipped a boulder that had fallen in the night and blocked half the roadway, Ms. Bateman arrived and immediately found cause for concern.

"There was some rabble, smaller material, that kept coming down," she said. "And the slope was making sharp popping sounds -- like a car door being slammed."

She insisted workers and news crews get themselves and their equipment out of the way. Within an hour, the mountain roared and about 14,000 cubic yards of rock and splintered trees rumbled to rest where at least a half dozen people had been standing.

On Wednesday, Ms. Bateman spent most of the day scrambling around and over the 1,000-to-1,300 dumptruck loads of rock and debris still choking the scenic highway.

"It's still very unstable," she said. Also, the debris on the road is holding up more rocks that eventually will fall, Ms. Bateman said.

"We're going to need to bring some stuff down in a controlled fashion," she said. "You start at the top and work your way down -- with men on ropes. It's specialty work."

Ms. Bateman and TDOT spokeswoman Julie Oaks said five small earthquakes about a mile southeast of the Cleveland area last week and the 15 inches of rain in the region since Sept. 1 could have led to the slide.

"It's hard to say this is the very thing that caused it," Ms. Bateman said. "But there was one (an earthquake) right before the slide in 2004, as well."

A Dec. 30, 2004, rock slide within a mile of Tuesday's slide closed U.S. 64 for about a month. Ms. Oaks said this week's slide will close the road for at least three weeks.

Closures on Highway 64 put residents of Ducktown and the Copperhill, Tenn., area between a rock and a hard place -- forcing them to drive along state Route 68 through Tellico Plains and Sweetwater to travel to Cleveland and Chattanooga. The detour more than doubles travel time.

Ms. Oaks said the rock slide gives officials "a valid reason for looking again at Corridor K," a proposed four-lane route to replace the current two-lane U.S. 64.

The Corridor K plan was proposed in the 1960s but has been stalled as officials and environmental advocates debated its potential cost and possible damage to the fragile Ocoee River ecosystem.

"We're moving forward with Corridor K. We understand it is a need in this area," Ms. Oaks said.

Highway officials recently restarted the public input and discussion process required for highway planning.

Ms. Bateman, the geologist, said highway officials have a hazard rating system in which inspectors drive along potentially dangerous roads and assess concerns. The Ocoee Gorge had not shown any problems recently, she said.

"And we rely a lot on our maintenance guys," she said. "When they see something (like rocks in the road) they call us. That's the reason I had come down (Tuesday)."

She said she hopes travelers in the gorge will be patient with the rock slide cleanup, which promises to be more complicated than just bulldozing rocks out of the roadway.

"It's going to take a while to get all this cleaned up," she said. "But starting at the top saves time in the end. And it saves lives, as well."

RECENT EARTHQUAKES

3.0: Nov. 1, 1 mile ESE of south Cleveland, Tenn.

0.9: Nov. 1, 1 mile ESE of south Cleveland, Tenn.

2.0: Nov. 1, 1 mile ESE of south Cleveland, Tenn.

0.8: Nov. 1, 1 mile ESE of south Cleveland, Tenn.

1.5: Nov. 1, 1 mile ESE of south Cleveland, Tenn.

1.1: Oct. 26, 8 miles ESE of Vonore, Tenn.

3.3: Aug. 31, 7 miles E of Lenoir City, Tenn.

3.2: Aug. 1, 6 miles ENE of Ducktown, Tenn.

Source, USGS, University of Memphis