Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009

Residents of area mountains are perplexed as one rock slide after another closes roads briefly or long term — often as a result of heavy rain. The latest was a short closing Saturday of Scenic Highway on Lookout Mountain. Shifting boulders landed in a ditch along the road.

Fortunately, the site seemed stable enough to reopen the road less than a day later. But several more days of work are expected before Signal Mountain Boulevard is completely reopened, after a recent washout of a section of road. And a Nov. 10 rock slide on U.S. Highway 64 in Polk County is expected to keep the highway closed at least another month.

The “silver lining” is that no one has been hurt in these mishaps. We hope it stays that way.

Chattanooga Times Free Press:  Sunday, December 13, 2009

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/dec/13/rock-slide-closes-scenic-highway/

As workers continued to dig out loose rock beneath Signal Mountain Boulevard on Saturday, another Hamilton County mountainside began giving way and fell to the road along Lookout Mountain’s Scenic Highway.

Three times in about the last month, rocks and earth gave way and closed major traffic arteries in the area. [This omits the North Georgia rock slides on Lookout Mountain in September: 1) the slide that trapped a motorist and closed Scenic Highway below Covenant College and 2)) the slide that sent twenty feet of Dougherty Gap Road thirty feet down the mountainside.]  The first slide, on Nov. 10 along U.S. Highway 64 in Polk County, will take two months to clear, officials said.

The second, early Wednesday on Signal Mountain Boulevard, caused that road on the side of the mountain to collapse early last week. It may be reopened in two weeks, state transportation personnel said.

On Saturday evening, two truck-size boulders fell to the road on Lookout Mountain and were resting in a ditch, according to Chattanooga police spokeswoman Sgt. Jerri Weary.

Highway workers in Hamilton County, upon seeing the size of the boulders and spotting some “questionable” trees, decided to close Scenic Highway for the night, said Tennessee Department of Transportation region spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn.

Officials won’t know the extent of the problem until first light this morning.

“A geologist has been notified but won’t re-examine the area until daylight. Until then, the roadway has been closed,” Sgt. Weary said in a news release.

TDOT documents show there are three sites in Hamilton County among 36 across the state believed ready to generate a rock slide at any time. Two are on Lookout Mountain some distance from Saturday’s slide, and the third is on Signal Mountain near Wednesday’s slide.

Repairing those most-dangerous sites “would cost major money to be spent to totally repair these roadways,” Ms. Flynn had said previously. “We have so many sites like that across the state; it’s just impossible.”

A surplus of rain and freezing temperatures has aggravated vulnerable mountainsides, geologists say. Water acts like a lubricant for the slides, and the freezing-thawing action loosens the stone.

On Lookout, highway workers thought if overnight rains fell hard, there was a greater chance more rock would come down.

“If it rains, it’s more likely that more will come down onto the road,” said Robert Shipley, the highway worker called to the scene.

He said the giant boulders hit a sign and were resting just on the road’s edge.

In Polk County, when 3,000 truckloads of rock fell to the road on Nov. 10, highway workers were on the scene busting up big boulders just minutes before the mountainside let loose and wiped out the roadbed.

PROGRESS ON SIGNAL

Highway repair contractors worked through the day and overnight Saturday to repair the gaping hole in Signal Mountain Boulevard, officially U.S. Highway 127.

“They are about two-thirds done with their excavation,” Ms. Flynn said, explaining workers were on track to finish on time.

Contractor Wright Brothers Inc. worked Saturday and through the night to repair the earth beneath the road, where a major hole developed after Tuesday night and Wednesday morning rains. Tennessee Department of Transportation officials said one lane of traffic should be open by Monday at 6 a.m.

On Saturday night, dump trucks lined the highway and one at a time dumped rocks onto the cleared-out slope, Ms. Flynn said. The rocks must be placed in the crater before a new road surface can be built, she said.

Signal Mountain police and Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies will be on duty from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. today to help motorists negotiate the curves at the top of the W Road, Town of Signal Mountain Mayor Bill Lusk said in a Saturday news release.

“We anticipate that officers will continue to assist traffic at the W curves during weekday commute hours until repairs to Signal Mountain Boulevard are completed. We thank citizens for their patience” and the deputies for their assistance, Mr. Lusk said in the statement.

Local residents had a difficult time going up or down the mountain Saturday using the W Road.

Motorists had to wait more than an hour on that road after a stalled truck blocked traffic early Saturday afternoon, a Signal Mountain police dispatcher said.

The road was backed up most of the day, said Janice Atkinson, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

Signal area traffic problems were the worst in the afternoon, when Roberts Mill Road also was closed because of water and ice, Ms. Atkinson said. That road was reopened by early evening, she said.

See “Another Rock Slide: Scenic Highway Closed” for follow up article.

See “Our Fragile Mountain” by Peggy Laney in OPINION.

See “Lookout out, Lookout” in ARTICLES.

See “Repair Equipment falls off Signal Mountain“.

By Adam Crisp

Chattanooga Times Free Press: Monday, December 14, 2009

North Georgia residents who found a key Lookout Mountain route to Chattanooga closed over the weekend will be allowed on Scenic Highway this morning following a weekend rock slide.

In total, three geological mishaps have closed roads, caused millions of dollars in damage and rerouted motorists. The latest, and decidedly the most minor, occurred Saturday on Scenic Highway on Lookout Mountain.

That slide resulted in massive boulders the size of pickup trucks falling into a ditch about two miles north of Ruby Falls. Chattanooga officials closed the road Saturday evening but reopened it less than 24 hours later.

Rain and cold weather often contribute to slides, and more precipitation is expected today in Georgia and Tennessee.

“Just by the geography of our mountains, there are multiple layers of rocks — some are strong, some are weak — and when there is a lot of rain, the moisture gets into the rock and breaks down the weak layers,” said Jennifer Flynn, TDOT region spokeswoman.

Freezing temperatures followed by a thaw — and even the minor earthquakes the area has experienced recently — can contribute to the slides, Ms. Flynn said.

“There was an earthquake that measured 3.0 in Bradley County on Nov. 1, and then on Nov. 10 there was a rock slide in neighboring Polk County,” Ms. Flynn said. “That could be a cause.”

The Polk County disaster will take two months to clean up at a cost of $2.1 million.

Even for mountain residents who are used to occasional road closures, the number of slides this fall seems high.

“Occasionally a tree will fall across the road or something of that nature — not anything like this,” said Don Stinnett, who has lived on East Brow Road overlooking the Lookout slide for 38 years.

A rock slide on Oct. 25 closed a section of Interstate 40 northwest of Asheville in North Carolina.

Since then a Nov. 10 rock slide in Polk County closed U.S. Highway 64, and it won’t reopen until at least mid-January. Then a slide collapsed a section of Signal Mountain Boulevard on Wednesday. Those two events are being cleaned up by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. This weekend’s slide was cleared by Chattanooga.

“We will clean the ditch line out along the right of way, and we’ll leave the big rocks right where they are,” said Tony Boyd, assistant director of citywide services.

Assessing the scene without the help of a geologist, Mr. Boyd said the Lookout rock slide appeared stable and unlikely to produce more slides. An expert is expected to examine the area today.

Meanwhile, on Signal Mountain on Sunday, workers still were dumping massive loads of rock into a crater created in the Wednesday washout there, Ms. Flynn said. That’s a $400,000 to $500,000 effort, she said.

That road was closed at 10 p.m. Friday and will reopen at 6 a.m. today.

“They are on schedule and still dumping rock,” Ms. Flynn said Sunday afternoon, adding that the one lane that will reopen Monday will be loose gravel.

The weekend closure of Signal Mountain access caused serious congestion at times on the W Road, an alternative route off the mountain that is fraught with hairpin turns.

“It’s been extremely congested,” said Peter Hetzler, the mayor of Walden. “The W Road, at the peak times, had a very long wait to get up.”

Walden residents, whose town is just north of the town of Signal Mountain, use the W Road as their primary route off the mountain, Mr. Hetzler said. The road requires some negotiation on the part of motorists.

“Particularly for people who are not experienced with the road, it can cause some trouble,” said Mr. Hetzler, a lifelong Walden resident. “You have to stop and wait and allow others to come down.”

See “Rock slide closes Scenic Highway.

See “Repair Equipment falls off Signal Mountain“.

See “Our Fragile Mountain” by Peggy Laney.

by Gail Bryan

Chattanooga Times Free Press: November 18, 2009

Letters to the Editor

The voters of Lookout Mountain, Ga., handed a resounding defeat this month to two city officials most closely associated with Chapelbrow, a dense 96-acre development proposed on a steep mountainside adjacent to Covenant College. The election was a clear repudiation of the development. The Times Free Press not only did not cover the significance of the election — and the voice of voters — but buried the numbers in an article on retirement communities that actually featured Chapelbrow and its promoter Frank Brock (past Covenant president).

There was no mention of the steep slopes and thin soil that are unsuitable for concentrated development. No mention of instances in which stormwater runoff resulting from far less density has created serious damage to property owners. No mention of the dangerous September rock slide that occurred directly above the proposed Chapelbrow site. No mention of the 31 percent increase in traffic the development would funnel past the elementary school. No mention of $55,000 the city has spent to hire a professional planner who recommended against Chapelbrow at the proposed site.

It makes a reader wonder why the paper appears to be listening to Frank Brock — who does not live in Lookout Mountain, Ga. — instead of to citizens who do.

GAIL BRYAN

Lookout Mountain, Ga.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/18/letters-to-the-editors/

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By Helen Burns Sharp

The Chapelbrow development would bring a mixture of housing types and an assisted living facility to Lookout Mountain. The project sponsors have answered the questions dealing with the “who, what, when and why” of the project. They haven’t answered the “where” question satisfactorily. The current site under consideration is in a steep, environmentally sensitive area that is designated for very low density development in the City’s new draft Comprehensive Plan. It is on the outskirts of town. In addition to environmental impact, a higher density development here would result in leap frog development and sprawl.

In the spring of 2009, the City Council hired a planning consultant team to prepare a draft Comprehensive Plan so that any new zoning would conform to the map, policies and objectives in the Plan. The consultants presented their recommendations at the end of August at a public meeting at Fairyland Club.

It’s critical that the City Council and the community recognize the important public policy questions that are on the table in order to answer the questions that will affect Lookout Mountain for generations.

The question is not “Do we think a development like Chapelbrow is a good concept”?  Many would agree that it is.

The question is not “Do we like and respect Frank Brock”? Most everyone does.

What then are the public policy questions that the City Council will have to decide?

The question is “Should the City Council adopt the recommendations coming out of a four month public planning process relative to the Comprehensive Plan”? YES. The land use consultants hired by the Council state in their draft concept plan that their key principle is as follows: “Locate all uses other than single-family detached houses within (or adjacent to) the Town Center. This approach will avoid sprawl.”

The question is “Should the City Council follow their consultants’ recommendations and zone the property in the southern half of the city very low density”? YES. This recommendation is based on steep slopes, forest density and a delicate drainage system. This is the part of town where Chapelbrow is currently proposed.

The question is “Should the City Council adopt site development standards that are sympathetic to the wonderful natural environment on the mountain (steep slopes, grading, tree preservation, stream buffers, etc.)”? YES. Currently the City doesn’t have these kinds of regulations on the books.

The question is “Does it make good planning and environmental sense for Chapelbrow to be located in an environmentally sensitive, steep area on the fringe of town”? NO. The September landslide below Covenant College is a reminder of the fragility of this part of the mountain.

The question is “Can the City Council find a legitimate way of adopting the consultants’ recommendations for the Comp Plan Map and carve out an exception for Chapelbrow to be located where it is currently proposed”? NO. Doing so would constitute “spot” planning and zoning. It would also violate the draft goals and objectives dealing with environmental protection.

The question is “Is the Comprehensive Plan update necessary only because of the Chapelbrow proposal”?  NO. The Plan would provide the blueprint for all future development in the city and for any changes to the Zoning Ordinance. Zoning is a tool to implement the Comp Plan.

P.S. Hats off to the City Council for all they do. This is but one example of how complex and controversial their job is.

 Helen Burns Sharp

Dear Mayor and Council and members of the Steering Committee for the Comp Plan Update–

I have attached a short piece on why I believe it would be a mistake to change the City’s Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance to allow Chapelbrow to be located in the southern part of town on a steep slope.

I was a land use planner in the public sector from 1971 to late 2007 when I retired. During my career in  Tennessee, Georgia, and Oregon, I had the reputation of being a centrist, sometimes to the dismay of neighbors who wanted to stop a particular development. I do think that some growth is generally desirable but I believe we need to pay particular attention to where the growth occurs. When you have an area as special as Lookout Mountain, it’s especially important that new development take place in appropriate locations and that it meet appropriate standards. In my opinion, the site where Chapelbrow is currently proposed is not an appropriate location and the City currently does not have the appropriate standards (hillside,etc.) in place to review such a development.

No one has hired me or even asked me to get involved in this matter. I heard about the PUD issue and Chapelbrow shortly after I moved back to Chattanooga from Oregon in February. I couldn’t help finding the subject matter interesting, given my training and experience and appreciation of the special natural qualities of Lookout Mountain. I have never met or talked with your planning consultants. I have been impressed with their work on the Comp Plan and with their courage in making sound planning recommendations that they had to know would not be universally applauded.

Thanks for spending the time you do for your community.  

Helen Burns Sharp

By Lindy Johnson

Chattanooga Times Free Press: November 4, 2009

Letters to the Editor

Chapelbrow proponents assert this subdivision wouldn’t have a detrimental impact. In order for Chapelbrow to be built in Lookout Mountain (Ga., LMG), a Planned Unit Development (PUD) must pass. Proponents talk about “minor” increases in population; Chapelbrow alone would bring in approximately 400 residents in a LMG population of 1,617 and increases housing units by about 27 percent. Once the PUD is passed, it cannot be used (solely) for Chapelbrow and not (allowed for) other high density subdivisions. Think ahead!

Chapelbrow’s “active retirement community” won’t impact traffic, according to proponents. Besides these active adults volunteering, shopping, or pursuing interests, consider the workers from off-mountain (and their trucks). Consider, too, this economy in which many postpone retirement. To say this active adult community wouldn’t drive during peak traffic times does not ring true. Traffic effects will be felt from LMG to South Broad. Once our traffic resembles East Brainerd’s, what is the plan to expand the mountain access roads? Neither main access road could be expanded easily.

Chapelbrow’s impact on the mountain’s landscape is bound to have many unintended and environmental consequences. It’s time to stop sugar-coating the foreseeable impacts (growth, traffic) when a change of this magnitude is discussed.

LINDY JOHNSON

Lookout Mountain,  Tennessee

At approximately six o’clock early Monday morning, September 21, a large slide of mud and rock broke loose from the mountainside just below Covenant College and crashed across Scenic Highway.   The landslide exposed gaslines, almost destabilized important college electrical equipment, and came close to the foundation of the newly opened Brock Hall.  Both the Chapel and Brock Hall were evacuated.

The images below do not convey the full scope of the event because the slide closed Scenic Highway to all traffic, and it was difficult to reach the site until Georgia Department of Transportation crews had cleared much of the damage.  According to a witness to the landslide, the highway was covered with boulders up to five feet high amid three-foot deep mud.  A passing driver caught in the landslide had his truck crushed against the guardrail by the avalanche of boulders.  The truck was lifted airborne and almost tossed over the guardrail down the mountainside.  He had to be extracted from his vehicle when crews arrived on the scene.  The huge boulders, according to a witness, were loaded into dump trucks and taken away from the site.

The landslide occurred just above the steep mountainside that has been proposed for the Chapelbrow subdivision.

The east side of Lookout Mountain collapsed in another area Sunday night south of the city.  A large twenty-foot paved section of Dougherty Gap Road slid thirty feet down the mountain.  Crews were unable to attempt repairs or clearing because the whole left lane continued sliding down onto them as they reached the area.  David Ashburn, Walker County Coordinator, said that the County cannot at this point determine the stability of large areas of the road and that it will be closed indefinitely.  Large portions of Scenic Highway on the east side of the Mountain have collapsed numerous times.  

Surely this is an argument for the fragility of the Mountain and for not building on steep slopes.

See “Our Fragile Mountain” by Peggy Laney in OPINION.

See also “Erosion closes Scenic Highway” and  “Repairs To Close Scenic Highway” in ARTICLES archives.

See “Rock Slide Shuts Down U.S. 64” in UPDATES and “High risk from rocks” in ARTICLES archives.

Photographs can be viewed in full format by clicking once on the thumbnail image.

The mudslide below Covenant College is pictured in the first three rows of images.

A partial view of the collapse of Dougherty Gap Road is pictured in the last two rows.  There are no images of the tangle of trees, asphalt, and rocks that slashed a scar down the mountain below the dirt slide in these pictures; it was too far away, and the climb down too treacherous. 

By Randall Higgins 

Chattanooga Times Free Press: Wednesday, November 11, 2009

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/nov/11/rock-slide-shuts-down-us-64-through-polk-county/ 

U.S. Highway 64 through the Ocoee Gorge will be closed for a week, maybe more, after a series of rock slides crashed across the highway Tuesday.

Julie Oaks, Tennessee Department of Transportation spokeswoman, said geologists haven’t yet been able to assess conditions in the slide area, which is just across U.S. 64 from the westernmost rafting put-in and just east of TVA’s Ocoee No. 2 dam.

“The problem is it is still raining and there is concern about the stability of the slope,” she said. “We will have to wait until the rain subsides before we can get in there to make an assessment.”

Discussion of a possible rock slide on U.S. 64 came up two weeks ago during a meeting of the Citizens Resource Team, created to make recommendations on Corridor K — a safer, four-lane route that would replace the current two-lane road.

“We are one rock slide away from being isolated,” Keith Dilbeck, a member of the Citizens Resource Team, said then.

On Tuesday, Mr. Dilbeck, of Ducktown, was among the commuters whose trips to Cleveland, Chattanooga and beyond were rerouted before dawn by the Polk County Emergency Management Agency.

Traffic is being rerouted along State Route 68 through Tellico Plains and Sweetwater, Tenn. The detour more than doubles the trip time between Copperhill and Cleveland.

A motorist discovered the first slide about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, said Don Longworth, operations chief for West Polk Fire and Rescue.

“It’s pretty common to get rocks coming down, but it’s the size and magnitude of this one,” Mr. Longworth said. “We had one three or four years ago that shut it down for, I guess, about a month.”

Crews pushed enough rock aside early Tuesday to allow emergency vehicles through, then set to work clearing the car-sized boulders.

About 1 p.m., when only a couple of rocks were left, the mountain rumbled and slipped again, re-covering the highway and pushing full-sized pine trees over the side of the Ocoee gorge.

Steve Jones, Polk County maintenance supervisor, said all local workers can do for now is wait.

“We are just waiting to see what the ones with the right words can say; the ones with more geology knowledge than I have,” he said.

Ms. Oaks said the assessment and subsequent cleanup could take a week or more. She said TDOT works each year to mitigate rock slides on U.S. 64.

“Unfortunately, that is not always foolproof and Mother Nature has a mind of her own,” she said.

MAYOR:

Bill Glascock:  361.

Tommy Gifford:  267.

CITY COUNCIL:

David Bennett:  566.

Sandy Gothard:  518.

Blair Ramey:  360.

Dennis Eischeid:  309.

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Chattanooga Times Free Press: November 18, 2009

Thirty-five locations in Tennessee are ripe for a rock slide — including three in Hamilton County, according to a Tennessee Department of Transportation report.

But funding and the motivation to shore up the problems appear to be low.

The fragile Ocoee Gorge mountainside that collapsed and closed a scenic two-lane road in Polk County was on a high-risk list of problem slopes for at least five years, and 10 other spots along the gorge also are on the list.

“Based on the history, that was an area that had been reported to us (as having repeated rock slides) over the years,” said Len Oliver, a civil engineering manager and coordinator of the statewide effort to map potential rock slides. “But it’s not that we can predict these slides will occur.”

In Hamilton County, three mountainsides are inspected and tracked regularly for potential slides and are considered as the most susceptible for future slides. Two are on Lookout Mountain — Cummings Highway and Scenic Highway — and another is along a busy stretch of Signal Mountain Boulevard heading up Signal Mountain.

Last Tuesday’s slide closed U.S. Highway 64 and effectively cut Polk County in half. The slide, which increased some residents’ commutes by an hour or more, will cost $2.1 million and take at least two months to clear the 3,000 dump truck loads of rock and debris, state officials estimate.

The state is trying to mitigate damage from future slides, but TDOT has only allocated about $2 million annually to the task, Mr. Oliver said.

Gov. Phil Bredesen said Tuesday that 92 to 93 percent of federal stimulus money for roads already has been spent, but it “could conceivably play a role” in projects that reduce the risk posed by rock slides. Such projects would have to qualify as “shovel-ready” for stimulus funds to be used, he said.

Gov. Bredesen said he has spoken with TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely about options for increasing funds for preventing rock slides, but now is not the time to raise funds by increasing the gas tax, which pays for roadwork across the state.

LOW RISK, HIGH IMPACT

Despite the list of hazardous sites, one geologist said the danger to motorists and residents is negligible because odds are long that anyone will be caught up in a rock slide. [See instance in which a Lookout Mountain city employee was caught in the September rockslide below Covenant College.  "Mudslide at Covenant" under UPDATES.]

“Living around these things is not a big safety concern. Most rock slides are over within seconds,” said Dr. Robert Hatcher Jr., distinguished scientist and geologist at the University of Tennessee.