Prep continues for new Bert Loupe Bridge

The new bridge will reconnect Dossett Road with Memorial Drive

By Charlie Hutson

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- With a break in the winter weather, Lafollette Public Works has used this opportunity to start clearing the site for the Bert Loupe Bridge. Clearing started back in early February on the Dossett Road (four lane) side. This week the work shifted to the Memorial Drive (airport) side.

VERY TOP PHOTO: This photo shows the clearing on the Memorial Drive side that got underway Monday.

At Monday afternoon’s City of Lafollette workshop, the Dossett Bridge bid (Bert Loupe Bridge) was discussed. City Administrator Stan Foust told the council three bids were received with the best at $800,000 over budget which came from Twin K Construction. The council needs to vote on whether it wants to accept the bid or not at the monthly meeting next week. The cost of the project is to be split 50/50 with the county.

No target date has been released on when construction on the project will get underway. 

Below is a story published on WLAF in the fall of 2024, and it gives some history of the old bridge and the new bridge project.

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-02/26/2025-6AM)