Traffic on Interstate 24 west of the I-24/Interstate 75 interchange will be shifted to the outside lanes Sunday night between Spring Creek Road and Belvoir Avenue to make way for crews to begin work on the median and the middle lanes.
The contractor on the project, Charleston, Tennessee-based Wright Brothers Construction Co., will begin the shift at 9 p.m. Sunday and continue until 6 a.m. Monday, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
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Drivers should be cautious as they travel through the project area and expect delays, the state agency said. Signs will be posted directing drivers through the work zone. The work will be rescheduled for a later date if weather interferes.
Meanwhile, crews are continuing work on the bridges over I-24 at McBrien and South Moore roads with the expectation of reopening them to traffic in January, according to the agency. The two bridges linking Chattanooga’s Brainerd community and the town of East Ridge have been closed since July 2023, when the contractor began demolition of the old bridges to widen the area under them for additional lanes as part of the $161 million second phase of improvements launched in July 2023.
The bridges were originally scheduled to be reopened in July, but five substandard bridge beams caused a delay and created costs that had to be borne by Wright Brothers.
Phase 1 of the interchange project, with a price tag of $133.5 million, was completed in August 2021 and left behind a backup that is supposed to be answered by the additional lanes in phase 2.
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Transportation officials said the second phase of the split project should be completed by late 2025, and the delay on the bridges is not expected to affect the overall completion schedule.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.