NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Tennessee Department of Transportation's massive under-taking to replace 13 bridges around the Nashville area began Friday night.
A two-mile stretch of Interstate 40, from the 65 split south of town, to the 65 split west of town was set to be closed until Monday at 6 a.m. Crews were scheduled to work to replace the bridge over Jo Johnston Avenue. That gave the crews 58 hours to tear down and rebuild the bridge.
That has some businesses in the Marathon Village area of town concerned.
"I'm afraid that will inhibit things a little bit. It will probably result in fewer people coming through here because it's just going to be harder for people to get here," Charlie Nelson said.
Nelson has co-owned the Green Briar Distillery on Clifton Street with his family. Every weekend, hundreds of people have gone on tours of the distillery and paid for tastings of his company's spirits.
He's concerned Fast Fix 8's impact of slowing traffic down will affect his bottom line.
"It's a huge part of our businesses, and I know other businesses in the area really count on the weekend traffic," said Nelson.
Just a few buildings down, the Antique Archaeology store has seen between 3,000 and 5,000 visitors every day. Most of those people haven't been from the Nashville area. With a main thoroughfare closed, there has been a fear that some visitors may give up and turn around.
"We know back-roads and side passages and alleyways," Matt Springer said. "The person coming from Saginaw, Michigan is not going to know any of that."
But, even though this construction could cause headaches over the weekend, Springer said the work is necessary.
"I'm willing to sacrifice having a few people come in for tours and tastings if that means a bridge isn't going to fall on people," Nelson said.
The project's expected closures have been scheduled to happen over 13 different weekends into 2016.
For more information on the closures, click here.
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