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I-65 slow down due to bridge repairs

By Bobby Shuttleworth - bio | email

DECATUR, AL (WAFF) - A 7 vehicle crash on I-65 left an 18-wheeler dangling off the Tennessee River Bridge. 

The driver was safely rescued from his wrecked truck, but a big piece of the guard rail was gone. 

Work to repair that guard rail started Monday morning. 

Traffic backed up to the Priceville exit with just one northbound lane open on the bridge in the morning.

By the afternoon, it was just a slight slow down, according to St. Louis resident Nancy LaBrier.

"It was quite a long backup, but it moved pretty quickly and we were pretty surprised when we saw the whole backup was just that little section of the bridge that was being repaired," she said. "But it did move along it wasn't too bad."

"They were letting people over in that right hand lane and it went real fast. Maybe slowed down 10 minutes, at the most," Indiana-bound Brenda Cox agreed.

Nashville's Amy Nelson maintained it was little more than a nuisance.

"It really wasn't that bad at all," she said. "It only slowed us down like 15 minutes, so it wasn't too bad."

With the repairs expected to take all week, some drivers may want to consider alternate routes, including U.S. Highway 31 through Decatur.

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