TDOT: More I-240, Poplar Ave. closures coming
The disruption this past weekend for motorists trying to navigate Interstate 240 and Poplar Avenue paid off for workers trying to make critical bridge repairs, Tennessee Department of Transportation officials reported Monday.
TDOT crews were able to make “great progress” on setting bridge beams over the interstate, agency spokeswoman Nichole Lawrence said in an email. She said the crews also continued prep work on Poplar Avenue abutments.
A heads up to drivers: prepare for more of the same. Lawrence said the same closures are planned for the coming weekend as work continues. Work, however, is weather-dependent. TDOT will make the call Wednesday on weekend work.
No major problems, beyond the expected disruption, resulted from this past weekend’s work. A stretch of about five miles of I-240 -- one of Tennessee’s busiest routes – closed in both directions between the I-4/240 split and Tenn. 385 from 9 p.m. Friday until Monday morning.
The section was scheduled to reopen at 6 a.m., but TDOT tweeted that traffic actually resumed earlier.
“All lanes of I-240 and Poplar Avenues opened at about 4 a.m.,” Lawrence tweeted early Monday.
It was the second weekend of closure for Poplar, which was closed in both directions at the I-240 interchange. Walnut Grove and Park remained open, but interstate access was prohibited.
The work is all part of TDOT’s MemFix 4 project, which calls for replacing four bridges over the interstate.
With a $54 million price tag, MemFix 4 replaces bridges built in the late 1950s and early 1960s that are deteriorating.
The four spans include two on Poplar along with one on Park and the Norfolk Southern Railroad.
MemFix 4 work is expected to finish next June by using what is called Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC). The practice, TDOT explains on its website, requires short-term total road closures to give crews the space they need to work around the clock.
TDOT says the practice allows construction to finish in months rather than years.
For more information, visit TDOT’s website explaining the MemFix 4 project in detail.