As part of the $132.5 million project to redesign the Interstate 75/Interstate 24 "split," the Spring Creek Road bridge that crosses I-24 is being replaced.
Contract crews for the Tennessee Department of Transportation will reduce the bridge from four lanes to two - one in each direction - during the project.
Initial work will begin Sunday night, when crews will shift and re-stripe the lanes, as well as reconfigure traffic signals at the intersections of Spring Creek Road with North Terrace and South Terrace.
TDOT officials say that work should be done by morning rush hour Monday.
When finished, the new bridge will include four travels lanes, a 12-foot median, two four-foot bikes lanes and sidewalks on each side.
TDOT contract crews will be replacing the Spring Creek Road bridge over I-24.
Motorists are encouraged to be patient and alert as they adjust to this new traffic pattern.
The split redo has been a few decades in the making.
The interchange at I-75 and I-24 - built in the late 1950s and early 1960s - has been the subject of improvement ideas since it notched its first 10 years of existence.
A fix finally arose in 2017 with former Gov. Bill Haslam's IMPROVE Act, as part of infrastructure investments for 101 individual projects in 40 Tennessee counties. The contract for the work was awarded in December 2018. Construction is expected to be finished by summer 2021.
More than 100,000 vehicles a day traverse the split, which is known for its daily backups, outdated merge lanes, frequent crashes and big-rig rollovers. And it's aging and suffering from wear and tear.
