Signal Mtn. Highway Closed Completely for Weekend

A major highway that thousands of people depend on every day is about to be closed completely this weekend for major repairs.

Right now one lane of Signal Mountain Road is closed because the roadway is washed out. The Tennessee Department of Transportation entered into an emergency contract with Wright Brothers Construction Thursday.

Fixing that huge hole that took out part Signal Mountain Road won't be easy. So if you drive up and down Signal Mountain everyday, get ready for some delays.

"And they plan on working 24 hours a day, seven days a week weather permitting," according to TDOT spokesperson Jennifer Flynn.

In order to make the repairs TDOT will close both lanes of Signal Mountain Road from 10:00 p.m. Friday until 6:00 a.m. Monday. It's the main way up Signal Mountain, so the narrower and winding W-Road is the way to go.

Signal Mountain resident Marsha Roberts said "Oh no! That's rough!"

The heavy rain two days ago caused a huge waterfall to cascade down the side of the mountain. The water got into the cracks of the pavement and washed out the soil and rocks underneath. This created a huge mud and rock slide that settled at the foot of the mountain.

During the complete road closure Wright Borthers Construction has just two days to do a tremendous amount of work. First, they have to take out sections of the pavement showing cracks where water washed out the foundation underneath. Then they have to stablize the slope and fill-in what's missing.

"There's going to be a lot of rock involved, a tremendous amount of rock they will use," Flynn said.

A viewer sent NewsChannel 9 pictures he took while driving up Signal Mountain Road that show the cracks in the roadway before the slide. We asked Flynn about what appears to have been the warning signs of the pending slide. She said this stretch of highway is among 36 in the state called "high priority" sites where geotechnical engineers know there are problems and monitor them daily. Repairs are made "as needed," and in this case the cracks in the past were sealed with tar to help prevent water from seeping underneath. 

But Flynn points out people on Signal Mountain were given the money and opportunity in the realy 1990's to permanently fix problems and widen Signal Mountain Road.

"There was a tremendous, overwhelming amount of opposition to any kind of improvement so we basically just shelved the project and that's what happened back then, " Flynn said.

Flynn said at that time Signal Mountain had a different mayor and Town Council.

But the huge hole is the result of letting things slide, literally. 

As for the issue of people opposing major repairs and widening the highway years ago, we called Signal Mountain City Manager Honna Rogers to find out what the town and people think now. Rogers said people and the Council would now love to have the money and chance once again to make major permanent repairs, like they did years ago. The problem then was people did not want to deal with a long term closure of the road until repairs and widening could be finished.

The only alternative routes from the Chattanooga side are to take the W-Road, which runs off of Mountain Creek Rd., or further to the North, Roberts Mill Rd. which turns off of Old Dayton Blvd. (Roberts Mill Rd. is also known as Falling Water Rd. and/or Sawyer Rd.).

Of course it is possible to reach Town of Signal Mountain from the Sequatchie Valley (Dunlap) side of the mountain, obviously a significant detour from Chattanooga.

Click Hotlinks above for Google Maps of Detour Routes.

TDOT News Release:

The Tennessee Department of Transportation today (Thursday) awarded an emergency contract to repair a section of U.S. Highway 127 on Signal Mountain to Wright Brothers Construction of Charleston, Tennessee. Heavy rains caused a portion of the roadway near log mile 15.9 about a half mile from the Signal Mountain city limits to collapse on Wednesday, December 9.

The contractor will close the roadway at 10:00 p.m. on Friday, December 11 at the site of the roadway failure. The road will remain closed until 6:00 a.m. Monday, December 14. At that time traffic will be restored to one lane. The contractor will remain on site and plans to work 24 hours a day 7 days a week, weather permitting, until repairs are complete. Repairs are estimated to take one to two weeks.