Fall Creek Falls Inn Construction Delayed Until July

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has delayed construction of the new Fall Creek Falls Inn and Restaurant until later this summer.

David Benton serves as the Tennessee State Park system’s director of facilities and land management.

“We are receiving additional funding. That project will continue on beginning in July once the new [state] budget is in,” Benton said. “There were some delays because some of the estimates were coming in high, so we did have to go back and get some additional funding.”

The total project cost had originally been estimated at around $29 million, but recent developments bumped that cost to nearly $40 million.

State senators finalized the 2019-2020 fiscal year budget last Tuesday which includes the additional funding for the inn project.

“[Crews] are geared up and getting ready to start construction once the funding is in place,” Benton said. “They’ll start shortly after the budget is passed in July, and we’ll proceed for probably the next two years, so probably 2021 for the completion.”

Park and state officials officially broke ground on the project back in January with initial plans for a November 2020 completion date.