Highway 64 at Ocoee River Blocked Until January

Polk county will remain divided until at least January.

The big rock slide on Highway 64 last Tuesday is more of a problem than first thought---and much larger.

WDEF News 12's Bill Mitchell and photographer Allen Fairbanks were back there again this morning to get the latest from TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely.

By now most of the country has seen Allen Fairbanks video of that massive rock slide at the Ocoee river.

Highway 64 is the only practical route between Benton and Copper Basin, and TDOT is moving fast to start the cleanup that has split Polk county in half. The 16-thousand residents did not want to hear what came out of the morning news conference.

GERALD NICELY, TDOT COMMISSIONER "Let me stress that this is very preliminary, at this point we think it's going to take at least 8 weeks...about mid-January before we'll be able to re-open this roadway to traffic."

TDOT says there are about 30-thousand cubic yards of material to move. That's about 3000 dump trucks full.

The figures have grown considerably since last week now that the experts have had a chance to get a closer look at the slope.

They're concerned about the safety of the workers who'll have to move much more unstable material up at the top.

The 2.1 million dollar contract Charles Blalock & Sons of Sevierville

Vanessa Bateman was the person who moved work crews back when she heard popping noises coming from the rock face last Tuesday. The crews were there working to remove rocks that fell earlier.

VANESSA BATEMAN, TDOT GEOLOGIST "You could see from cracks and things on the slope..certainly we heard some sounds..while we were out here..that 'pop"....like a car door slamming...that's not a good sound for a rock cliff to make."

State Senator DeWayne Bunch and Representative Eric Watson were there today..both pushing the Corridor K by-pass.

REP. ERIC WATSON, CLEVELAND "One of...many, many many reasons why we need corridor K."

ST. SEN. DEWAYNE BUNCH, BRADLEY MCOUNTY "Corridor K, we needed it yesterday, we need it today..Corridor K.

No visitors allowed, of course, but you'll be able to follow the progress through regular updates and a time lapse video of the clean-up from T-DOT.

We've posted a link you can bookmark, at WDEF.com.