Part of state Highway 68 cracked and slid down a slope in Rhea County on Tuesday, April 24, 2018.Personnel and contract crews with the Tennessee Department of Transportation will begin repairing a section of SR-68 in Rhea County that was damaged from a slide that occurred earlier this week, according to a TDOT news release.
The section of road is currently closed and repair work is estimated to take around four weeks to complete.
The recent wet weather caused a portion of the road that connects Spring City in Rhea County to Crossville in Cumberland County to slide down the slope on Tuesday, April 24. The site of the slide is approximately three miles north of U.S. 27 in Spring City, Tennessee.
The repair work will involve removing loose material from the slide area and stabilizing the remaining slope by a process called soil nailing. Soil nailing is an on-site soil reinforcement technique where soil nails are placed into the natural ground at relatively close spacing to increase the strength of the soil mass. As the bars are drilled, grout is inserted into the hole to ensure that the soil nail stays put.
A retaining wall will then be added to reinforce the area, drainage improvements will be made and the entire area will be backfilled with new material before the roadway is rebuilt, according to the release.
Message boards have been posted notifying the public of the closure and detour routes will also be posted.