May 15 was first official day of construction on Bert’s bridge

‘The bridge contract calls for a 120 day project’- Stan Foust La Follette City Administrator

TOP PHOTO: Signage went up Wednesday as construction on the new Bert Loupe Bridge takes another step. (PHOTO COURTESY OF WLAF’S CHARLIE HUTSON)

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- Talks of what will be Bert Loupe Bridge began in 2018. Since, La Follette has had four mayors and Campbell County has had two county mayors. The project has survived the changes and is still on track to be constructed.

Day one of construction of Bert Loupe Bridge was officially two weeks ago today on May 15. The new bridge will connect the airport (Memorial Drive) to Dossett Road.

The bid from Twin K Construction for the Dossett Road Bridge (Bert Loupe Bridge) in the amount of $4,098,583 was approved at the March City of La Follette regular monthly meeting. The cost of the project is to be split 50/50 with the county. The bridge, to span a railroad track, replaces a bridge that collapsed in the 1970s, and it was never replaced until talks of replacing it began in 2018. The new bridge will once again connect Dossett Road with Memorial Drive and Tommy C. Stiner Airfield.

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-05/29/2025-6AM)