NASHVILLE, Tenn. (May 29, 2019) – Bell Road is closing at J. Percy Priest Dam from 7 a.m. Monday to 4 p.m. Thursday (day and night) the weeks of June 3-6 and July 15-18. The road is also closing 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily June 10-13, June 17-20, June 24-27, and July 8-11 while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District performs a five-year inspection of the spillway gates, chains, machinery and performs routine maintenance. The roadway will be open on weekends over the duration of the work. The roadway remains open Monday through Thursday, July 1-4, for Independence Day celebrations.
“We understand this is a hardship for local commuters. But safety is a top concern for us, and we have to precisely set in place a large crane to perform the work on the dam and over the spillway. This is why the roadway has to be closed during this period,” said Joe Conatser, superintendent at the J. Percy Priest Power Plant.
Tommy Mason, resource manager at J. Percy Priest Lake, said the Corps is trying to inform local residents and others who routinely use this route so they can make alternative transportation plans during the period of the work and closure over the dam.
“Please share this with everyone you know so they can plan ahead for this closure,” Mason said. “We know this is a huge inconvenience for a lot of people and we just want to alleviate the frustration by getting the word out ahead of time.”
For more information or to ask questions about the closure, please contact the J. Percy Priest Lake Resource Manager’s Office at 615-889-1975 or via e-mail at jpercypriestlake@usace.army.mil.
(The public can obtain news, updates and information from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District on the district’s website at www.lrn.usace.army.mil, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/nashvillecorps and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nashvillecorps. The public can also follow J. Percy Priest Lake on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jpercypriestlake.)
Release no. 19-022