Knox County Mayor's Office
Contact: Dwight Van de Vate Posted on 7-1-2010
215-4750 officeMascot ReBridge Project Completed Ahead of Schedule
Contractor completes work on Mascot Bridge one day early
The Knox County Department of Engineering and Public Works reports that safety upgrades on the Mascot Bridge have been completed one full day ahead of schedule.
According to Jim Snowden, Deputy Director of the department, the general contractors (General Constructors of Mount Juliet) and the striping contractor (Highway Markings of Knoxville) are scheduled to be on site today to stripe the approaches and bridge before EPW staff makes a final walk through to ensure complete safety for traffic. The bridge will open sometime today after the evening rush hour.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) had previously rated the Mascot Bridge as “poor,” reflecting the need for safety improvements.
In order to lessen the time and expense of the project, the county chose to go with the full-closure repair of the bridge. Although this caused residents and workers living in the area to make an approximately 22-mile detour, the alternative was up to 6 months of lane closures, with long traffic back-ups, and a cost of roughly a million dollars. Using the full-closure approach reduced the estimated costs to complete the project to $314K, in a time span of only 30 days.
After the bridge reopening, intermittent one-lane closures will occur during daylight hours for another 60 days to allow for final repair and traffic markings.
The contract calls for all construction to be 100% complete by Monday, August 30, 2010.
