A large section of Interstate 24 will be shut down for four weekends in downtown Nashville.
Officials with the Tennessee Department of Transportation announced a major interstate project to replace the I-24 bridges over Oldham Street and Spring Street. The $28.5 million project would also include deck repairs to the Silliman Evans Bridge.
This portion of Interstate 24, located on the eastern loop of downtown, will also be resurfaced as part of the project.
The project has been set to use the innovative process of Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC).
ABC has been known to speed up the construction and repair of highways and bridges by allowing short-term, total road or bridge closures.
These closures have allowed crews the space to do their jobs and the ability to work around the clock.
According to reports, the work will cause complete closures from the Interstate 40 split east of downtown to the Interstate 65 split north of downtown for a minimum of four weekends starting this fall.
Officials said the weekends will not be held consecutively. They added they’ve made sure the closures will not affect events such as any Tennessee Titans games at Nissan Stadium, the Tomato Arts Fest, or Tennessee State University’s Homecoming game.
The weekends have been set for the fall, but because they do not want to interfere with events, some of the weekends could be pushed to the spring if weather doesn’t work out with the closures.
These closures, according to reports, have been known to dramatically reduce the time to complete projects and the long-term inconvenience to drivers.
TDOT officials said they’ve already had several successful ABC Projects, including the Fast Fix 8 project in 2015, which replaced eight bridges on Interstate 40. They also replaced the Interstate 24 bridges over Woodland Street and Main Street in East Nashville in 2012, which required the same closures that will be required for this new project.
The project has been expected to make commuting safer for more than 148,000 vehicles each day. It's scheduled to be finished by June 2018.
For those concerned about interstate access during the four weekends of closures, TDOT officials released the following map:
Local access in that area will be as follows:
Two neighborhood meetings have been scheduled by TDOT for those who may be interested in more information on the project or closures:
- Monday, June 19, 6-7 p.m. - North Nashville Precinct, 2231 26th Avenue North
- Tuesday, June 27, 6-7 p.m. - East Park Community Center, 600 Woodland Street
For more information or to sign up for the I-24 Bridge Project Email, click here.
