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By Lynn J. Richardson

As downtown Elizabethton continues its recovery efforts following damage from Hurricane Helene, a major artery in the area will remain closed, at least for a while, according to officials with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT).

According to Mark Nagi, Regional Communications Officer for TDOT, there is “no timeline” for the Broad Street bridge’s reopening.

“The foundation still has to be inspected and the Doe River has not receded enough for a scour inspection to be performed,” he said in an email to the Elizabethton Star. “A dive team has been asked to perform an underwater inspection as soon as possible.”

That bridge closure essentially impedes access to the eastern end of Broad Street which connects with Highway 19E.

That makes East Elk Avenue the obvious choice for getting from one end of town to the other. The result, obviously, is very heavy traffic in the downtown area. So when officials from the Small Business Administration came to town earlier in the week, they found downtown Elizabethton hopping.

“We had the SBA Director Isabel Guzman and a team from the U.S. Small Business Administration in downtown Elizabethton this week,” said Logan Engle, Elizabethton Assistant City Manager. “She and her team were here to begin assistance following flooding caused by Hurricane Helene that has damaged many small businesses in Elizabethton.

“We were explaining to her that traffic downtown is heavy now because of the Broad Street bridge closure. There was a gaggle of people everywhere,” Engle added. Unfazed, Engle said Guzman pointed out that now is a great opportunity to capture more interest in the downtown with the additional influx of traffic.

Engle and Main Street Elizabethton director Courtney Bean visited several businesses and heard stories from two of the small businesses downtown, Tweetsie Trailing Ice Cream Company and Riverside Taphouse, both of which had been impacted by the flood.

Flood damage has not only affected downtown businesses, but it will also impact downtown events and activities going forward, says Bean. Many of those festivities have required the closure of East Elk Avenue and now that that is not an option, Bean is working to find workarounds. At press time on Friday, she was in a meeting to develop a plan for future events.

In the meantime, TDOT is continuing to work its way through the area, trying to repair and rebuild damaged roads so that traffic can resume in impacted areas.

However, the agency has hit something of a “roadblock,” as private property owners are reluctant to sign a necessary permission form, allowing TDOT equipment and vehicles on private property so work can continue. For instance, TDOT may need to park a dump truck on private property while a paving crew works nearby.

Due to the reluctance of some property owners to sign the form, TDOT has issued a “NOT A SCAM” alert, explaining that the form is simply a “permission slip” for TDOT to be on private property as crews repair or rebuild roads.

Property owners can find out if they are impacted here: https://www.tn.gov/tdot/projects/projects-region-1h/hurricane-helene-rcovery.htm. They can also get more information by contacting TDOT by email, TDOT.HeleneResponse@tn.gov or by calling 833-TDOTFIX (836-8349) and following the voice prompts.