Trees are removed from Stringer’s Ridge along Highway 27 on Friday afternoon. The trees are being cleared in preparation for a construction project to widen the highway.BY THE BIG NUMBERS• 600,000 cubic yards of excavation• 275,000 tons of large graded rock• 57,000 cubic yards of concrete• 80,000 tons of hot mix asphalt• 6 new bridges• 14,000 linear feet of retaining walls, the longest of which is more than 1,000 feet• 12 miles of steel for the retaining walls• 8 miles of steel for the bridges• Almost 2 miles of concrete drainage pipe• 6 large overhead signs spanning the roadway• 44 roadway lights, 20 are 100 feet tallSource: Tennessee Department of Transportation
When roadwork to widen U.S. Highway 27 between the Olgiati Bridge and the Signal Mountain exit is done, the new stretch could be dubbed the “hundred-million-dollar” mile.
The 1.6-mile passage through narrow breaks in the folds of Stringer’s Ridge is budgeted to cost $102.5 million and probably will go over that budget, according to Ken Flynn, the regional construction manager for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
Because the now four-lane road is in a valley between unstable hills lined with condos, widening it to six lanes and adding adequate acceleration and deceleration space for three sets of on- and off-ramps means moving up the ridge on both sides.
“It’s a big challenge,” said Flynn. “There’s a lot going on in not a lot of space. And there are complications.”