South Pittsburg officials investigating failure of mountain road

photo A section of Raulstontown Road is sliding off the side of South Pittsburg Mountain, and the city has gotten a grant to find out why and possibly fix the problem.

SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. - A section of Raulstontown Road is sliding off the side of South Pittsburg Mountain, and the city has gotten a grant to find out why and possibly fix the problem.

City Administrator Sammy Burrows said the heavy rains that caused a flash flood in July 2013 also triggered "issues" at one point along the mountain road.

"The road has actually shifted up there," he said. "The imminent threat there is the utilities that are actually in that road."

Paul Thomas, an engineer with Stantec in Chattanooga, said there is a "slow failure" on a small section of the road where it is slipping off the mountainside.

He drafted the preliminary engineering report on the issue and submitted it to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Office.

That organization awarded the city a $150,000 Emergency Community Water Assistance grant recently to investigate and fix the problem.

At the October meeting of the South Pittsburg City Commission, the board voted to accept the grant and authorize Mayor Jane Dawkins to execute the project contracts.

Thomas said the first step is to complete a survey to define the right-of-ways owned by the city in the area. Then a geotechnical report of the affected spot will be done to determine the best way to fix the road.

Thomas said the project can't continue until those studies are finished.

"We need to know a little bit more about the road," he said.

The grant money, which doesn't have a matching funds requirement for the city, can be used to complete those studies and also will cover construction and administration costs up to the $150,000 awarded.

"Any money spent after the $150,000 would be out of pocket," Thomas said. "If we did not spend that much money, then [the city] would just get the amount that it did spend."

The project still has "too many unknowns" to estimate the total costs of repairing the road, he said.

"We've had a lot of questions since the flood last year about that road situation," Dawkins said. "It's one lane now, and it was dangerous when it was two lanes. We're definitely very appreciative of this help that we're going to get."

Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.

Upcoming Events