Rebuilt and expanded Meadow Street bridge now open in Rocky Top
After being closed for about a year, the road that carries traffic across a tributary of Coal Creek near downtown Rocky Top has reopened with a brand-new bridge.
The previous Meadow Street Bridge was torn down last May, and work was begun on a newer, wider span that also includes a sidewalk for the first time.
Rocky Top City Manager Michael Foster told the City Council recently that after some unforeseen problems had delayed completion of the new span for months, the bridge “is finally open and now carrying traffic.”
“The new bridge is a lot bigger than what was there, and it has a sidewalk on it,” Foster said.
The bridge carries Leach Avenue over the creek, and connects with Meadow Street, just off Creek and Main streets in downtown Rocky Top.
The previous bridge was removed in May 2021, and residents who use it were initially told it would take only about three months to get the new one built and opened.
Most of the delay came because the city had to move a waterline that was unexpectedly found when the old bridge was demolished.
Work was then stopped until the city could determine where the line ran and what customers were served by it, and how to move it to allow bridge construction to proceed.
City crews replaced the line in late November, after waiting for water pipe and other supplies that were on backorder.
The bridge project itself, with a final bid price of $263,667, was paid for by the Tennessee Department of Transportation under former Gov. Bill Haslem’s Improve Act, which raised the state gasoline tax to pay for bridge and road pro-jects statewide.
The city’s only expense was moving utilities.