City: Gatlinburg
State: Tennessee
Owner: Tennessee Department of Transportation
General Contractor: Blalock & Sons

Project Description:
The widening of US 321, on the edge of the Smokey Mountain National Park, presented unique challenges that were addressed by Schnabel.  Our work consisted of 15 permanent tieback walls, with a total length of over 8,500 ft and exposed face of almost 200,000 sf, supported by over 1,000 soldier beams and 1,500 tieback anchors.  The tieback walls were designed and constructed under the supervision of the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT).

The majority of the walls were built on existing 1H:1V slopes located on each side of US 321, a heavily traveled roadway.  These slopes consist of a medium hard to hard siltstone that is highly fractured.  By utilizing the tieback walls, right-of-way easements were minimized and the natural beauty of the surrounding environment was not compromised.