MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 2:52 pm

The nightmare on Broad Street started months ago and still might have months more before its finished.

What started out as a simple bridge repair project on one of Murfreesboro’s busiest roads has truly turned into a nightmare for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

TDOT started the project to replace two bridges over Lytle Creek on Northwest Broad Street in February with a target completion date of June 15.

But June 15 is just a few days away and TDOT only started the final phase of the project Saturday. Traffic has been shifted to the west side of the road with two lanes in both directions and a center turn lane, but still no left-hand turns are allowed at Main Street.

“The contractor will now begin removing deteriorating concrete on this part of the bridge, then will pour new concrete. The concrete will then have to cure for a couple of weeks,” explained B.J. Doughty, spokeswoman for TDOT.

“TDOT now anticipates the project being complete in late July or early August due to a substantial amount of repairs that were added to the job,” Doughty added.

Doughty explained the bridges were concrete covered in asphalt, making a true assessment impossible.

At first, TDOT thought only part of the concrete would have to be replaced on the bridges.

“Sometimes, the news is good and there are less repairs that are actually needed. And other times, there are more,” Doughty said.

This time the news was bad and after removing the asphalt, crews found the bridges in worse shape than initially thought, meaning more work was needed.

“In this case, there were more repairs, some of which had to be made from the bottom or underneath the bridge rather than from the top,” Doughty said. “That's where the weather really didn't cooperate because Lytle Creek was high enough to delay some of that work for a time during the spring.”

Not only does the weather delay and additional work mean more headaches for Murfreesboro drivers, it also means traffic snarls during Uncle Dave Macon Days, which brings thousands of tourists to town for an old-fashioned good time.

TDOT has a meeting planned with representatives from the city of Murfreesboro in the near future to discuss the status of the project.

“We will also discuss Uncle Dave Macon Days and will be looking for solutions to deal with the heavier volume of traffic that will be traveling through the project area,” Doughty said.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.