The Hon. William Everette Lewallen Memorial Bridge on Clinch Avenue is pictured above near downtown Clinton in this file photo from December 2013.
Information from WYSH Radio
Clinton City Manager Roger Houck gave WYSH Radio in Clinton an update on Wednesday morning on the project to replace the green bridge that connects South Clinton and Clinton on Highway 25W, also known as Clinton Highway and Clinch Avenue. The bridge is currently structurally sound and safe, but the Tennessee Department of Transportation said that could change over the next few years, hence the replacement project.
Houck said that TDOT had earlier indicated that they would put the project out for bids in the second quarter of this year with construction slated to begin in the third quarter, but the city was recently informed that the timetable has been moved back some, with bids expected to be be sought in the third quarter. Construction on the approximately $21 million project could begin late this year or, more likely, early next year.
The new bridge will be 77 feet wide, with four 11-foot-wide traffic lanes, an eight-foot median, two five-foot-wide bike lanes, two 5.5-foot-wide sidewalks and two-foot-wide gutters.
TDOT offered to sell the existing bridge to the city for somewhere between $500,000 to $ 1 million, an offer the city politely declined. TDOT will demolish the existing bridge, which will remain open during the construction of the new one, once the new bridge opens.
WYSH Radio in Clinton is an Oak Ridge Today news partner.
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