TDOT Officials Can't Say When Bachman Tunnels May Reopen

Contributed photo: TDOT officials were onsite a the Bachman Tunnels Thursday assessing the stability of a wall where a mudslide closed this section of Ringgold Road early Wednesday evening.

Almost 18,000 Cars Travel Through Tunnels Each Day

It is anybody’s guess as to when the Bachman Tunnels will reopen to traffic after a Wednesday evening mudslide brought down debris on the East side of the heavily traveled thoroughfare.

Tennessee Department of Transportation crews, which included engineers, were out early Thursday morning to assess the situation and clear the debris.

TDOT spokesperson Jennifer Flynn said in a statement that the tunnels themselves were not damaged.

“We are concerned with the stability of the slope,” Flynn said is a written statement to East Ridge News Online. “Our crews have been cleaning debris from the roadway and trimming trees from the slope.”

Flynn said water is still running off the bank onto Westbound lanes on Highway 41 that is Ringgold Road. Flynn said that based on 2020 statistics 17,925 cars travel through the tunnels each day.

Geotechnical engineers are assessing the situation and preparing a plan for repairing and stabilizing the slope.

“We will open the tunnels as soon as we safely can, but I don’t know when that will be at this time,” Flynn stated.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.