By Brooke Stevenson
brooke@seymourherald.com    
    A large crack in a Sevierville road has caused the city to close both lanes of traffic for an undetermined amount of time.
    The problem area is on Ridge Road that runs between U.S. 441 and Veterans Boulevard.
     The crack was caused by water seeping underneath the road into the roadbed from the hillside which then loosened some of the underlying roadbed, causing some of the road to become unstable.
    The area has been excavated and engineers removed a section of the roadway for further testing.
     “We are still evaluating the situation,” said city spokesman Bob Stanlke. “There are geotechnical engineers that are out there looking for it. The public works director told me that he hopes to have a plan in place sometime in the next few days.”
     The city has to wait for the evaluation before they can move forward with any measures to take care of the problem.
    Even though the crack was only one side of a two lane road, because of its location and the need to excavate the city closed the road completely to traffic.
    “It will likely remain that way throughout the course of whatever repairs have to be made to reopen the road,” Stanlke said.
    He added that he was told that the least amount of time the road would be closed would be at least two or three weeks once the engineers determine what can be done to correct the problem.
    “It is safe to say for a least the next couple of weeks it will be closed,” Stanlke said.
    Despite the road closure, the city has not faced any major traffic issues, according to Stanlke.
    “It was a well used roadway, but there are enough roads right there that people have been able to make use of,” he said. “It hasn’t been a significant problem.”

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