Approval of plans to reconstruct a 14.5-mile stretch of the Newfound Gap Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park means visitors will have to cope with 6-to-7 years of road work on this key highway that crosses the park from Gatlingburg, Tennessee, to Cherokee, North Carolina.
The road work will focus on the section of highway that runs from Gatlinburg to the Tennessee-North Carolina state line at Newfound Gap.
"This action is needed to address the deterioration of the pavement, safety concerns, and rehabilitation of the historic cut stone guardwalls, most of which were constructed about 70 years ago by the Civilian Conservation Corps," said park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson. "The road and wall conditions continue to deteriorate, increasing the Park’s routine maintenance and intermittent repair costs as well as posing safety hazards."
Park officials say the work will take place in three phases over the next 6-7 years, beginning with the first two miles of the road that descends north from Newfound Gap into Tennessee. That first phase is expected to begin in November of this year.
"We are very sensitive to the impact that road construction can have on our neighboring gateway communities. We reached out to our community leaders on both sides of the Park during this process to inform them of the purpose of and need for the work, along with the options being considered for timely completion of the project," said the park superintendent. "We will make every effort to schedule the work so as to minimize traffic disruptions during peak visitation periods."
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Comments
I agree the road needs it. It is quite weathered and heavily used. However, why so long? 2 miles of resurfacing per year? This is the 21st century. That seems awfully slow.
This reconsstruction is a lot more than just resurfacing. It also includes rework of stonework. Not just anyone can do this kind of stonework and we are not talking about small stones that can be moved by hand. Many places where there are guardrails needs work below the guardrails to shore them up. This road, like most of our National Parks, has been neglected far too long. It cannot be improved overnight.
Six to seven years just to repair the road seems excessive since it took less time than that to build the road from scratch in the early 20th century. It only took five years to build Hoover Dam in approximately the same time period. Government regulations and the lack of a work ethic causes jobs to take much longer today than they did just a few decades ago. Heck, the Empire State Building was built in one year and one day!
one word "government"