MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – Town Creek in Murfreesboro will one day be a lush greenway with a beautiful nature space for folks to enjoy, but that’s still a ways away.
Right now, that creek is underground, buried under cement and parking lots, but thanks to new technology, crews are able to get underground and show first-hand what engineers are up against when it comes to restoring Town Creek.
With a drone, crews are able to get a crystal clear view of Town Creek underground.
“Seeing the drone go in is pretty neat,” said Gabriel Moore, project engineer for the City of Murfreesboro.
Moore showed News 2 how the drone carefully travels through 1,800 feet of underground concrete and pipe, mapping every nook and cranny of the waterway, and revealing the challenges engineers face rehabbing this creek.
“I’ve never been a part of a project with a drone survey,” said Moore. “To do that with the drone is a great advantage to having to send a two-to-three-man survey crew in there.”
One of those challenges is a dam.
“We’re thinking maybe an opportunistic beaver saw a limb stuck down there and started building a dam,” Moore said.
Town Creek stretches from Murfree Springs to Cannonsburgh Village. In the 1950s and 60s, engineers buried the creek underground all in an effort to redevelop the Historic Bottoms neighborhood for commercial growth.
“When 41 came through, there was an opportunity to kind of revitalize or renew that area and provide new opportunities for new businesses and things of that nature,” Moore said.
Now, the city is taking a new look at Town Creek with fresh eyes, and that means tearing up the concrete and bringing the creek back to the surface.
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The goal is to create a quiet place in a fast-growing city for folks to relax and enjoy the outdoors with a bikeway, walkway, and green space.
“To have a place for the downtown residents of Murfreesboro to go and enjoy somewhat of a natural environment, if you will,” Moore said.
The next step is construction bids. Engineers plan to have it done by 2026.
