A crowd of people filled Signal Mountain Middle/High School's cafeteria for a 10-minute presentation on a Tennessee Department of Transportation project on three miles of state Route 8 up Signal Mountain.
"We're excited about this project," said state Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, who was among the attendees. "It's been a long time coming."
The project area begins at the bottom of the mountain near the Suck Creek Road intersection, continuing up the mountain and ending just before the Palisades Drive intersection on state Route 8, also known as U.S. Highway 127.
"The purpose and need for this project is to improve safety, reliability along the roadway, reduce potential roadway failures and also improve drainage," Fritz Brogdon, project engineer for Arcadia, said during his presentation.
He said the Department of Transportation has started or completed four stabilization projects in the area over the past four years.
In 2018 a rock slide occurred in the area, and the department completed two slope stabilization projects to help increase the road's reliability, Brogdon said.
In 2019, the department began an ongoing slope-repair project that includes the construction of two retaining walls along Palisades Road. The project went out to bid earlier this year, and the contractor is starting work on Palisades Drive, and the department is acquiring right-of-way to complete the project, he said.
Another slope stabilization project was completed in 2020, Brogdon said.
Improvements proposed for this project include eight retaining walls for slope stability and the addition of new drainage ditches along the roadway.
"Most of the (eight planned retaining walls) are there to help be able to put in a new ditch in areas where you don't have ditches or you have a minimal ditch where we can actually get a ditch that can have capacity and help carry the water better," Brogdon said.
Other drainage improvements include upsizing culverts to prevent stormwater overflow onto the roadway, he said.
Safety improvements include proposed right-of-way acquisition that would improve sight distance in several locations and the addition of guardrails in a location with a high accident rate, he said.
Rock with a high potential to fall will be removed, and slope drapes -- which are basically metal nets that contain loose rocks and keep them from falling in the roadway -- will be installed, Brogdon said.
He said the estimated construction start date of the project is 2026.
Contact Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.