Two-hour detours now are a thing of the past for Polk County residents affected by rock slides that shut down U.S. Highway 64 through the Ocoee Gorge for more than five months.
The highway reopened to excited drivers just after 11 a.m. Wednesday when Tennessee Department of Transportation workers removed barricades that kept the road closed since Nov. 10.
The project, which included the cleanup of a Jan. 19 rock slide a few miles from the original site, came with a price tag of more than $2.8 million and hundreds of hours of labor, TDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn said.
The first car drove through the newly reopened road at 11:19 a.m., just minutes after workers put the finishing touches on the freshly painted yellow and white lines.
"I got up there and TDOT had it blocked off, but they said, 'Well, if you're crazy enough to do it, go on,'" said Jay Moultrie, of Cleveland, Tenn., with a laugh.
Michael Miller, 43, of Spring City, Tenn., drove by shortly after. Mr. Miller drives through the area frequently to cover Ocoee Dam sites No. 1 and 2 for TVA, and he said the reopened road will save him a lot of time. He was about to take a detour when he stopped at the Chevron gas station in Copperhill and was told the road would be open by noon.
"So I kept driving with anticipation of running into somebody telling me I need to wait until noon," he said. "And I met the trailer and trucks blowing horns, so I figured it was open."
Contractors worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the past month to clear the debris and make the road passable by the Friday deadline, said Ken Flynn, regional construction manager for TDOT. He said he was glad the road could be opened "a little bit early."
"We've been working really hard, because we know that the people in Polk County have been suffering the last few months that this thing has been closed," he said. "So we really wanted to get it open as soon as we could for them."
When Wolf Creek, N.C., resident Keesha Curtis, 30, heard the road was reopened, she decided to make a trip to see her mother in Cleveland, whom she visited two to three times a week before U.S. 64 closed.
"We've only been four times since November," Ms. Curtis said. "She called me and told me it was opening today, so I packed up the kids and we're headed there."
Patsy Jenkins, the trustee in Polk County, drove the long detour route once a week and said it not only added almost two hours to her trip each way, but the gas was beginning to add up. She said she anxiously has been awaiting the road's reopening, especially since the county has taken a hit in sales tax collections since it closed.
Local businesses echoed that sentiment, expressing relief that the road finally has reopened and they can expect more business soon with whitewater rafting season on the Ocoee River about to pick up.
"It's really affected us; the sales have been way down compared to those from this time last year," said Darlene Crumley, manager of the Conoco gas station just outside the Ocoee Gorge. "We're all excited it's opened. It's going to help a lot of people that use it to go to work, and it will help our business."
BY THE NUMBERS
* 26,000 -- Tons of debris removed from Nov. 10 rock slide
* $2.1 million -- Cost of cleaning up Nov. 10 slide
* 14,000 -- Tons of debris removed from Jan. 19 rock slide
* $759,000 -- Cost of cleaning up Jan. 19 slide
Source: Tennessee Department of Transportation
HIGHWAY 64 IMPROVEMENTS
* 450 rock bolts, each reaching between 15 and 40 feet into the mountainside, secure the rock layers together.
* Holes drilled into the side of the rock allow water to drain, preventing buildup that puts pressure on the rocks and can cause them to move.
* Rock-fall fence designed to catch debris and keep it from getting into the roadway installed at the Jan. 19 rock slide site near Greasy Creek
Source: Ken Flynn, TDOT regional construction manager.