Commuters driving Monday morning toward downtown Chattanooga through the Missionary Ridge Tunnels on Brainerd Road met head-on with oncoming traffic going the opposite way after the closure of the eastbound side for electrical updates.
One of the two tunnels where Brainerd Road and McCallie Avenue meet will remain open throughout the project with two-way traffic, according to state transportation spokesperson Rae Anne Bradley.
“We have a project underway to replace the entire electrical system for the McCallie tunnels, including upgraded LED light fixtures and an emergency battery backup system,” Bradley said in an email.
The project contractor is Stansell Electric Co., based in Knoxville, with a low bid of $1.5 million, she said.
The completion date is Aug. 30. State officials call the Brainerd Road-McCallie Avenue route state Route 2. It’s also U.S. Highways 11 and 64 as it passes through the ridge.
(READ MORE: What to know about Chattanooga’s Missionary Ridge area)
“Happening now, and continuing for the next six weeks, both directions will utilize the west tunnel while work is completed in the east tunnel,” Bradley said.
“A raised curb and reflective delineators will separate traffic within the tunnel,” Bradley said.
McCallie tunnels alternating closures for electrical updates
Once that work is complete, the traffic pattern will be shifted to the other tunnel for the same work.
The temporary two-way traffic pattern recalls the thoroughfare of 1955, the end of the era during which cars and trucks used a single tunnel through Missionary Ridge with traffic going in both directions. An additional tube with two new lanes was completed a year later, according to a June 30, 1956, editorial on the three-year project in the Chattanooga News-Free Press that cheered, “At last it’s open.”
Construction of the second tunnel through Missionary Ridge took three years, beginning in 1953, delayed several times by mudslides, labor disputes and complaints from its residential neighbors.
The day after the new, second tunnel opened in 1956, the paper reported, “the traffic jam at Brainerd Road and Germantown Road has become worse.”
(READ MORE: Local history: Construction of original Missionary Ridge Tunnel was frustrating)
The original two-lane, two-way tube through the ridge was opened in 1913, almost 112 years ago. At the time, the tunnel was seen as a connector from the city to the rural east side of Missionary Ridge.
Bradley said drivers should exercise caution and watch for work crews in the construction zone.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.