Bass Pro Walls Going Up at Exit 1

After months of expectation, the walls of the Bass Pro Shops are going up at Exit 1.

Ethan Wood, a principal with Wolftever Development, the development firm working on Bass Pro and the adjacent Jordan Crossing, said Wednesday that concrete walls were poured on site two weeks ago and set in place with cranes earlier this week.

Wood said the delivery of structural steel is scheduled for this week, and workers anticipate beginning to erect the steel on Monday.

“Everything is going good,” Wood said Wednesday. “Especially the weather.”

Wood said he was very pleased that the city is moving forward with contracting with a road building outfit to widen Camp Jordan Parkway to accommodate traffic expected at the retail development.

On Tuesday, the city awarded the bid to Brown Bros., Inc. to widen Camp Jordan Parkway to five lanes. The winning bid for the project came in at $1.825 million.

The construction arm of Wolftever Development, MPL, is doing all the site work, officials with the company said. Bass Pro Shops is working with Vannoy Contruction, the general contractor for the development.

Wood said that electrical and plumbing work is on-going at the building site, while MPL continues to do some grading work.

“We hope to have gravel in the lot in the next couple of weeks,” Wood said.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.