The City of Knoxville is sponsoring a public meeting from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, September 28, on the upcoming closure and reconstruction of the Henley Street Bridge. The meeting will be held in the large assembly room of the City County Building.

TDOT will close the aging bridge in January 2011, and it will remain closed for 30-36 months while the structure is dismantled and rebuilt. The bridge deck will be widened and when finished, the bridge will have two travel lanes in each direction, a center turn lane and a bike lane on each side of the bridge. The project will cost $30 million.

The bridge opened on Jan. 3, 1932, as a gateway from downtown Knoxville to South Knoxville and to the mountains. The bridge cost $1.15 million to build and was 1,793 feet long. According to TDOT, 38,813 vehicles travel the bridge each day, and that number is projected to increase to 53,000 by 2022.

At the meeting, TDOT will describe the steps it will take to reroute traffic via James White Parkway, the South Knoxville Bridge and Moody Avenue. Chapman Highway between the Tennessee River and Moody Avenue will remain open for traffic during the closure period.