The $32 million project to reconstruct the interchanges on Interstate 24 at South Broad and Market streets on Chattanooga's Southside is on track for an Aug. 31 finish as crews work on the final phase of construction and start repaving the interstate.
Crews on Friday were working on the frontage road, the project's final phase in the construction of a new 1.6-mile multilane road that runs parallel to I-24 from Broad to Market streets. Small teams were compacting the gravel roadbed as new traffic lights flashed at the road's intersections with Williams and Market streets. At the end of the frontage road on Market Street, drivers headed to I-24 east will simply cross Market to take the existing on-ramp onto the interstate.
The project is 83.9% complete, Rae Ann Bradley, Tennessee Department of Transportation spokeswoman, said.
Motorists traveling through the area will see a new surface being applied to I-24 this week.
"The contractor is scheduled to complete paving on I-24 in both directions between mile marker 177 and mile marker 180," Bradley said in an emailed statement. "In addition, they're scheduled to complete paving on the three U.S. 27 ramps — U.S. 27 north from I-24 east, U.S. 27 south to I-24 east and U.S. 27 south to I-24 west. All of this work will take place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Tuesday night through Thursday night."
Tennessee Department of Transportation / A map of the Tennessee Department of Transportation's interchange improvement project on Interstate 24 at South Broad and South Market streets.The contractor, Charleston, Tennessee-based Wright Brothers Construction, started the work in September 2020 and was dogged by supply chain issues in the summer of 2022, but Bradley said crews remained on schedule.
"The contractor should have everything finished, including the new frontage road from Broad Street to Market Street, by the scheduled completion date," she said.
Bradley said there have been no significant changes in the cost of the project and no major problems.
When federal interstates were completed in the 1960s, the area of the current project was called the "big scramble" for its sprawling design, and the traffic count in the area in 1966 had increased from 37,000 to 51,000 vehicles per day, according to Chattanooga Times Free Press archives.
Now the traffic count in the same area ranges from about 71,000 per day west of the city to more than 118,000 vehicles per day between Missionary Ridge and the U.S. 27 interchange, according to 2022 state traffic data. Broad Street's traffic count data from 2022 was around 23,000 vehicles a day.
The area around I-24 and South Broad has often been seen as the gateway to Chattanooga from the west, but the existing loops and ramps that served as exits and entrances were outdated, according to state officials.
The project aimed to improve the safety and operation of the interstate and accommodate current and future traffic demands, promote economic growth and support area redevelopment.
(READ MORE: 'Gateway to Chattanooga' project to beautify downtown interchanges in limbo)
Staff Photo by Olivia Ross / Work continues Friday at the interchange reconstruction project at Interstate 24 and South Broad Street.State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, one of the improvement project's biggest promoters, didn't immediately return phones calls or respond to emails seeking comment Tuesday on the project's progress, but in the summer of 2022 he noted the project was hastened by booming development on the Southside, including a new stadium for the Chattanooga Lookouts.
On its Facebook page, Wright Brothers posted drone footage shot in February that showed much of the concrete work involved in construction of the ramps and bridges connecting I-24 to the Southside.
As far as trucking bottlenecks go, Chattanooga's two heaviest-traveled interchanges dropped in rank among the worst in the country.
In 2022, the intersection of I-24/U.S. 27 was ranked at No. 29 on the American Transportation Research Institute's 100 worst freight bottlenecks, but in 2023 it dropped to No. 39. Likewise, the Interstate 75/I-24 interchange known as the split dropped in the rankings to No. 59 in 2023 from No. 10 in 2022. The only Top 10 bottleneck in Tennessee is Nashville's I-24/Interstate 40 interchange at Interstate 440.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Let to contract: June 26, 2020.
Contractor: Wright Brothers Construction Co.
Bid price: $32 million.
Estimated completion: Aug. 31, 2023.
Source: Tennessee Department of Transportation
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.