Nashville, Tenn.—The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) announced today construction work on two Tennessee highways that will result in the closure of a portion of US-411 south of Maryville and a closure of US-129 between Calderwood and the North Carolina border for the week of May 4-9. The closure is the first in a series of blasts necessary to remove unstable rock bluffs located above the hydroelectric dams along the Tennessee River.

“This week’s blasts will be very similar to the February 26th weekend blast,” said TDOT’s Chief Engineer, Paul Degges. “We will be covering a much larger demolition area, which requires us to close the highway for 6 days. By doing the larger blast we hope to reduce the number of weekends that will require a complete closure of US-129 later this summer when tourist traffic reaches its peak.”

“This week we will again be removing close to 9,000 cubic yards of rock from the bluff, so, for safety reasons we cannot allow traffic in this area during the blast. The road closure will also allow the TDOT to install new safety guardrails along US-129” Degges said.

Eastbound US-129 traffic will be detoured onto the Foothills Parkway to US-321 eastbound. Motorists traveling from US-411 North are advised to take US-411 North to US-321 at Maryville.

Message boards will be displayed at the junction of US-411 and US-129 and several locations along US-321 and at the junction of Hwy 28 and US-129 westbound in North Carolina to alert travelers and to help detour them around the closure. Tennessee and North Carolina State Patrol officers will also be in place to assist motorists with the detour.