Contractors made major progress overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday repairing the sinkhole that swallowed up nearly two lanes of eastbound Interstate 24 in Grundy County early Tuesday morning.
But motorists still are facing long commutes around the hole, and relief will come only after repairs are complete this Saturday, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
“The contractor worked throughout the night excavating the sinkhole in an effort to reach solid rock, which they did,” said TDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn. “They will begin filling the hole with rock (Wednesday evening). After that it will be a matter of hauling rock and filling in the hole until they can get it to a point where they can repave it.”
The highway gave way to the sinkhole Tuesday morning around 8 a.m., according to TDOT. The hole is just west of the Pelham/Winchester exit and east of the Manchester exit on the Grundy-Coffee county line. Repair work is being performed by Highways Inc. at a price tag of $266,000, TDOT officials said.
While repair work is on track for a Saturday completion, Ms. Flynn said, motorists traveling from western points to Chattanooga are urged not to take I-24 because the small-town detours are unpredictable, and traffic can be bumper-to-bumper at times.
“Since people are aware of the closure now, it may be to their benefit to take another route entirely from Nashville to Chattanooga,” Ms. Flynn said.
Driving on interstates 40 and 64, while about an hour longer in total travel time than taking I-24 to Chattanooga, will take about the same amount of time as taking I-24 and then exiting onto the detour, officials said. The alternates don’t involve stop-start, bumper-to-bumper traffic, either.
“Although U.S. 41 is a good road, its capacity is less than that of an interstate highway, therefore it takes longer to get through,” Ms. Flynn said.
The detour off I-24 leads through the Pelham, Tenn., community along U.S. 41, State Route 50 and then rejoins the interstate at exit 127. On Tuesday, the first day of the detour, motorists reported spending up to an hour on the winding 13-mile detour.
Shanika Luke, who was heading from Memphis to Chattanooga on Tuesday to pick up her sister from college, said the added travel time was a shock.
“When you see detour, you don’t think it’s going to be an hour longer,” Ms. Luke said. “I couldn’t believe it. I got to see lots of cows, though.”
TDOT is warning motorists about the delays through its overhead message board system, and there are several portable message signs warning about the delays.
“I guess I should have known better,” said Dale Caldwell, who was driving through from Nashville to Atlanta. “I knew about the delay, but it seemed like going to Birmingham (the TDOT recommended detour) was going to be so much longer.”
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