Mitchell W. Stout Bridge
Mitchell W. Stout Bridge | |
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| Coordinates | 35°45′23″N 84°22′25″W / 35.75644°N 84.37367°W |
| Carries | 4 lanes of  I-75 |
| Crosses | Watts Bar Lake, Tennessee River |
| Locale | Loudon County, Tennessee |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Girder bridge |
| Total length | 1,671.9 feet (509.6 m) |
| Width | 42 feet (13 m) (both spans) |
| Height | 54.5 feet (16.6 m) |
| History | |
| Opened | December 20, 1974 |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | 57,943 (2025)[1] |
| Location | |
 Interactive map of Mitchell W. Stout Bridge | |
The Mitchell W. Stout Medal of Honor Memorial Bridge, commonly known as the Mitchell W. Stout Bridge, is a pair of steel girder bridges that carry Interstate 75 (I-75) across the Watts Bar Lake impoundment of the Tennessee River in Loudon County, Tennessee.
Description and history
[edit]The Mitchell W. Stout Bridge is maintained by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. It is located in unincorporated Loudon County, Tennessee, about two miles (3.2 km) west of the county seat of Loudon. It consists of two spans of steel plate girder bridges, each with two lanes and full-width shoulders. The bridges are located near milepost 74, about 30 miles (48 km) southwest of downtown Knoxville. The structures have a total length of 1,671.9 feet (509.6 m), and are each 42 feet (13 m) wide. The longest spans are 400 feet (120 m) long. The bridges reach a maximum height of 54.5 feet (16.6 m) above the navigation channel on the river.[2]
The first contract for the bridge was awarded in March 1972, after multiple delays caused by redesigns.[3] On November 21, 1972, two workers were killed and another injured when a 90-short-ton (82 t) section of a pier under construction fell into the river.[4] The bridges opened on December 20, 1974, and were part of the last section of I-75 in Tennessee completed.[5][6] Final deck sealing, however, was not yet complete due to cold weather, and was done in the spring of 1975; as a result, the bridges were initially restricted to two lanes.[7] In 1978, the bridges were named for Mitchell W. Stout, a U.S. Army soldier from Knoxville who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Vietnam War.[8][9][10]
On March 28, 1994, a runaway barge that had broken loose from its mooring due to flooding struck the bridge, along with the US 11 bridge and a railroad bridge nearby. The collision broke a chunk of concrete loose from a pier, but engineers determined that it caused no major structural damage. I-75 had been closed to traffic on this section in preparation for the collision. On March 9, 2019, the bridge was again closed to traffic when a barge broke loose upstream and drifted towards the bridge. A tugboat was able to stop the barge about 600 to 800 feet (180 to 240 m) from the bridge, preventing a collision.[11]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Tennessee Department of Transportation. "Traffic History". ArcGIS. Esri. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
- ↑ "I-75 Over Tennessee River". data.jsonline.com. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
- ↑ "I-75, I-81 in Next Lettings". The Knoxville News-Sentinel. Associated Press. January 21, 1972. pp. 1, 16. Retrieved October 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ "2 Die in I-75 Span Accident". The Knoxville News-Sentinel. November 22, 1972. p. 20. Retrieved September 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ "Two Interstate Links in East Open Friday". The Tennessean. Nashville. December 18, 1974. p. 25. Retrieved April 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ "Dunn Opens 96 Interstate Miles". The Tennessean. Nashville. Associated Press. December 21, 1974. p. 32. Retrieved April 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Yarbrough, Willard (January 1, 1975). "Vacationers Create Jams On Interstates; Two-Lane Areas Still Causing Many Complaints". The Knoxville News-Sentinel. p. D-16. Retrieved September 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Hasson, Kathy (November 28, 1990). "Lenoir veterans want larger signs to honor one of own". The Knoxville News-Sentinel. p. F3. Retrieved September 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Matheny, Jim (May 27, 2019). "Bridges to past bravery abound in East Tennessee". WBIR-TV. Knoxville. Retrieved August 30, 2026.
- ↑ "Mitchell W. Stout". medalofhonor.easttnhistory.org. Knoxville: East Tennessee Historical Society. Retrieved August 30, 2026.
- ↑ "WBIR Vault: Runaway barge hits I-75 bridge over Tennessee River in 1994". Knoxville, Tennessee: WBIR-TV. March 11, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
Bridges of the Tennessee River | ||||
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