LOUDON, Tenn. - Workers have shifted traffic from the U.S. Highway 321 bridge on Fort Loudoun Dam onto a new, four-lane bridge 2,000 feet (610 meters) downstream.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the opening of the bridge Tuesday marked the end of a two-year, $71 million project that hurdled delays.
The J. Carmichael Greer Bridge, which opened in 1963, is now closed for good. Tennessee Department of Transportation spokesman Mark Nagi says it will be demolished over the next 100 days.
Plans to widen Highway 321 to four lanes between U.S. Highway 11 and the dam had been discussed for 15 years. While TDOT awarded nearly $70 million in funding to the project in 2012, delays and change orders piled up.
Nagi says the project will likely be completed on May 4, 2018.