A $16 million stormwater project in St. Elmo will bring the closure of Broad Street at St. Elmo Avenue for up to 90 days.
Bill Payne, city engineer, said efforts were made to avoid an open cut across the heavily-traveled Broad Street, but he said there was no way to avoid it. He said several main stormwater lines come together in that vicinity.
A section of St. Elmo Avenue north of Broad Street will be closed for up to 60 days while the work is being carried out.
The project is set to start in late September or early October.
The road closures will not be until after the first of the year.
Traffic is to be routed away from Broad Street along St. Elmo Avenue and Tennessee Avenue.
Mr. Payne said the contractor is aware that Broad Street needs to be available for the Ironman event next May.
He said the work is necessary due to collapsing pipes in that vicinity, including beneath a landfill that was operated by Wheland Foundry near Chattanooga Creek. He said pipes going under the landfill will be abandoned in the fourth and final phase of the work.
The first phase will be in the vicinity of Chattanooga Creek and the second part on St. Elmo Avenue. The Broad Street closure is the third phase.
Mr. Payne said a new stormwater pipe will be drilled under Cummings Highway and the nearby railroad tracks to take runoff from Lookout Mountain.
A line will be drilled underneath the dialysis clinic at St. Elmo Avenue and Broad Street rather than having an open cut in order not to cause so much disruption to the business.
Other businesses nearby to be affected include the Mount Vernon Restaurant and a laundry across the street.
Mr. Payne noted that the new section of the Riverwalk will be going in the vicinity of the stormwater work. He said that was taken into account and some sections of stormwater will be below the Riverwalk, including at St. Elmo Avenue and Broad Street.
He said the work will also yield some new landscaped areas.
Wright Brothers Construction has the contract at $15,155,813.
Civic Engineering and Information Technologies will oversee the project, which is set to take over a year. That contract is $792,112. The Civic firm was earlier paid for the design.
Mr. Payne said the project is not related to the Consent Decree on curbing sewage overflows into the Tennessee River.
He said it will be funded at 100 percent by the city.