Here are five things you should know about Monday’s planned closure of the Walnut Street pedestrian bridge.
1. How long is this going to take?
The Walnut Street Bridge renovation effort is planned to take 18 months, with the expected reopening coming in September 2026, according to walnutstreetbridge.com, a website the city maintains about the closure.
“That’s a set-in-stone time,” Errol Williams, spokesperson for the city’s public works department, said in an interview. “Contractors feel confident that they can complete everything that they need to.”
While the bridge will be completely closed to pedestrians and cyclists during the renovation effort, the bridge will reopen for some events, including Ironman, 7 Bridges Marathon and Head of the Hooch regatta, according to the website’s renovation schedule.
“It’s just better and overall more efficient for the construction crews to close down the bridge in its entirety instead of trying to do piece here, piece here,” Chattanooga parks and outdoors spokesperson Brian Smith told the Chattanooga Times Free Press by phone.
2. What exactly are they doing?
The renovation will see improvements made to structural, electrical and deck deficiencies, according to the bridge website.
In practice, this work includes putting in cedar wood that will last longer, installing new electrical systems to improve lighting and security and ensuring the foundation is sound, Smith has said. Painting and sandblasting work will also be done, he said.
“It’s a very long bridge, and, as I’ve told people a couple times, it’s not as simple as just painting the house,” Smith said. “It’s like painting your house with a toothbrush, because you got to really get in there and do it correctly. And that’s the thing, we want to get in, completely overhaul, do it correctly, and then really bring this bridge back to life.”
3. What are the alternate routes across the river?
Walkers, runners and cyclists can use alternate routes on Veterans Bridge or the Market Street Bridge to go between downtown Chattanooga and the North Shore.
City crews added a wide lane on one side of Veterans Bridge, protected by barriers and bollards, where people can walk or bike. That route adds about 0.7 miles to the crossing, while the Market Street alternative adds around 0.2 miles.
CARTA will also be running two additional free shuttles across the river. One will run every 15 minutes on weekends and the other will run six days a week every half hour.
“We started to hear the concerns of the merchants, in particular on Frazier (Avenue),” CARTA chief executive Charles Frazier said by phone. “There’s like 3,000 people a day, on a busy day, going across the Walnut Street Bridge.”
You can find schedules and information about the detours on the Walnut Street Bridge website.
4. Who did the art on the detour route?
With Veterans Bridge serving as the official detour route during the closure, the city wanted to add a public art display, making the path more engaging for pedestrians and cyclists traveling between downtown and the North Shore, said Carmen Davis, senior director of Chattanooga Office of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy.
The city issued an open call and selected New York City-based artist Ebony Bolt for the project.
Bolt visited Chattanooga in December and used the information she gathered to inform her artwork. In creating her designs, she wanted to be intentional about representing the people from Chattanooga, the people who moved to Chattanooga and the people visiting Chattanooga, she said by video call.
“I never wanted to come into the city wanting to push, ‘Oh this is me and this is my work,'” Bolt said. “I wanted it to always be a merge between the ideas that I’ve heard from Chattanoogans.”
There are four sections of Bolt’s work, each representing a different aspect of Chattanooga that she experienced. Each design for the four sections — art, nature, recreation and shopping — repeats about three times, covering about 15 barriers per section, Bolt said. The designs are only displayed on the pedestrian side of the barriers.
“It’s a love letter to Chattanooga,” Davis said of Bolt’s work.
5. What will be the expected impact on local businesses and tourism?
Local business owners recognize the need for the bridge renovations.
“Obviously, it’s an icon for our community, and they’ve done improvements on it before,” Catharine Bahner Daniels, owner of Plum Nelly and president of the North Shore Merchants Collective, said by phone. “But, obviously, (they) feel like they need to take a deeper dive — no pun intended, on a bridge — and make it better.”
With the alternate routes available, Bahner Daniels said she hopes people continue to come and support the locally owned businesses of the North Shore.
Having operated on the North Shore for years, the owner of Geno’s Salon, Geno Wallace, who also serves as the secretary for the merchants collective, said in an interview that he expects minimal impact from the bridge closure. It will take “just a little bit of time” for people to become more familiar with the new ways to access the North Shore, he said.
Across the river, The Ice Cream Show has stood by the downtown entrance to the Walnut Street Bridge for over a decade. While there could be a decrease in sales due to the bridge closure, owner Lynda Curtis said by phone that she tends to be an optimist, and she intends to stay open and keep her normal operating hours.
“I’ve been there 15 years, so I’m not going away,” Curtis said. “I like my location. I love Chattanooga.”
People can still walk up to The Ice Cream Show from the Tennessee Aquarium and continue on to the Hunter Museum of American Art, and the shop has outdoor seating for people to use, Curtis said.
Chattanooga Tourism Co. is thrilled that the Walnut Street Bridge will open for big tourism events, the company’s president and CEO, Barry White, said by phone. The bridge is an iconic structure for the community, and it is a significant part of the Chattanooga experience, White said.
Tourism is an important part of Chattanooga’s economy, White said. The options available for residents and visitors alike to move around both sides of the river will serve the city well, causing “the least disruption during the renovation,” he said.
To ensure residents and visitors continue to be able to use the Walnut Street Bridge, the renovation has to happen, White said.
Contact Sam Still at sstill@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6579.
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton/ Netting to catch debris hangs under the Walnut Street Bridge on Friday, March 14, 2025.