Meeting set for Dossett Bridge project, now in its 6th year of talks

A special called meeting is scheduled between city and county leaders later this month

TOP PHOTO: WLAF’s Charlie Hutson shares this April 2019 photo of Bert Loupe soon after the proposed new Dossett Road was named in Loupe’s honor, the only manager the airport has ever had.

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- In 2018, talks and studies began into constructing a new Dossett Road Bridge that would reconnect the dead end road to the airport. On Tuesday, leaders with the City of La Follette announced a special called meeting with the county mayor and commissioners. The meeting will take place on Tue., Oct. 29, at 2pm, at La Follette City Hall on 207 South Tennessee Avenue.

In the early 1970s, the county condemned the old cross-tie bridge that allowed travelers from Dossett Road to cross over the railroad to the airport.  The bridge was later razed and weeds, trees and all kinds of growth now cover the area where it once stood.

Fast forward 50 years, and plans are still underway to build a new bridge near where the old one stood.  The bridge will take a now Dossett Lane from being a dead end to being a more efficient way to get to the Colonel Tommy C. Stiner Airfield.

Even though the bridge is still in the works some six years later, it was decided in the spring of 2019 to name the new after Bert Loupe. Loupe has been the manager of the airport for almost 60 years and is the only manager the airport has ever had.

“It’s a great honor.  But we still have some time before the bridge is completed,” Loupe said with his famed hearty chuckle, during an April 2019 interview. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-10/16/2024-6AM)