Polk County will remain cut off for another two-and-a-half months as contractors work to clear the major rock slide that closed U.S. Highway 64 on Nov. 10.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation announced Friday that the road will remain closed until March 31. Back in November, TDOT officials said the clearing work would take at least eight weeks.
The latest announcement comes as awful news to the residents of eastern Polk County who use U.S. 64 to reach employment, schools, shopping and medical care in Cleveland, Chattanooga and other points west. The two most-used detours take at least an hour longer.
"Our businesses are drying up, and I don't know if they will make it much longer," said Ducktown Mayor James Talley. "They might get the road open, but I don't know what the town will look like by then."
TDOT says the roadwork is taking longer than expected because the side of Little Frog Mountain that collapsed was still so unstable, they needed to sheer off tons of loose rock before they could remove the mass of debris that fell during the rock slide. Workers will begin round-the-clock dumptruck removal in the coming weeks to make the work move faster, officials said.
"This continues to be very dangerous, slow-going work," said Steve Hall, assistant state engineer, speaking at a Friday news conference. "On the eastern side, we still have about a 20-foot rock shelf that has to be removed."
And just below that shelf is the Ocoee No. 2 Dam that holds back the river and provides the whitewater rapids that fuel the area's summer rafting season. TVA has "crack monitors" on the aging dam and contractors have placed special netting to prevent rocks from striking the dam and damaging it further.
"Crews must work safely, quickly and carefully around the TVA dam," said TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely in a written statement. "We understand the hardship this has placed on the residents of Copperhill and Ducktown ... We will continue to work closely with the contractor to re-open the roadway as quickly as possible."
BY THE NUMBERS* 82 days until work is finished* 6,000 cubic yards of debris removed* 8,000 cubic yards needs to be removed* 8 weeks was the original clean-up estimateSource: Tennessee Department of Transportation
Already, workers have sheered off the western portion of the mountain's face and hauled away 6,000 cubic yards of debris. But there still is another 8,000 cubic yards of rock to haul away, Mr. Hall said.
The latest completion deadline falls in the first few weeks of the Ocoee River rafting season. The rockfall occurred on top of the area where rafters stand to put in their vessels.
"It doesn't really surprise me that they won't be finished until then," said Ocoee Rafting owner Angie Arp. "But really, we do very little business that time of year, especially if it's cold."