Staff Photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press
TDOT truck driver Houston Kilgore, above in mirror, is one of two men onsite at a two-day-old rock slide going up Monteagle Mountain on westbound Interstate 24 at the 137 mile-marker. The slide fell from more than 50-feet above the roadway in the center of the picture.MONTEAGLE, Tenn. — A Christmas Day rock slide on the westbound side of Interstate 24 is no longer creating traffic problems, but state technicians will assess the area’s stability today to make sure the remaining rock stays put.
Tennessee Department of Transportation officials said Monday that about 500 tons of rock broke away from the mountainside about 5 p.m. Saturday near the top of Monteagle Mountain just outside the fast lane on the uphill side.
Giant boulders and rubble plunged about 60 feet from a ledge above the road into a manmade “catchment” structure at the roadside. The structure resembles a corral made of concrete barriers between the mountainside and the road.
Lighted signs alert motorists headed toward Nashville to a “rock slide” and warn that the left lane is closed, though the lane is passable and traffic is not completely blocked.
Randall Dill and Houston Kilgore, TDOT workers from Marion County, were among crew members who monitored the slide and manned a salt truck during the weekend snow.