proposed Interstate Thru Wild county:

“After departing Hiawassee, Interstate 3 would leave Georgia and enter North Carolina, following Georgia 17 and North Carolina 69 north to U.S. 64 west to Murphy. At Murphy, the freeway would follow U.S. 19-129 north and U.S. 74 east via an existing expressway to Topton, then head north along U.S. 129 to the western edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and onward into Tennessee. Once in Tennessee, Interstate 3 would follow U.S. 129 north through Maryville and Alcoa, then pick up Interstate 140 north to meet Interstates 40-75 just west of Knoxville. This interchange would serve as the northern terminus.

The 'relatively' wild county is Graham County, NC with this new highway to cut right between the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

More roads are not needed in that area.
last edited: 6/30/05 8:27:31 AM”

“More ATL folks in the Smokies. Oh goodie.”

“What!? No!!!”

“Building large highways in that terrain is grossly expensive, terribly destructive and there are already fairly decent roads thru there. This would badly further fragment areas of black bear habitat.
last edited: 6/30/05 8:33:31 AM”

“"fairly decent roads"


Maybe the people that live around there want decent roads.
LOL”

“The same thing is happening in West Virginia with Corridor H. It is being built in stages, with some haggling over the route near the upper part of Blackwater Canyon still taking place.”

“It happened in NY in the '60's when they built the Adirondack Northway (I-87)(which required an amendment to the state constitution). It's nice that I can get to the high peaks in less than 2 hours, but then again so can everyone else.
last edited: 6/30/05 9:21:37 AM”

“US Highway 129 is already there, you know 2 laned and paved, somewhat curvy, generally not crowded at all and I just cannot imagine how numerous 300' and 400' cuts and fills in there to allow a slightly higher average speed would be worth the costs which would amount to maybe $50 million for some one mile sections.

Such projects are meant more to fatten the wallets of the road building cronies of the politicians than anything else, would result in much new residential/commercial construction in the vicinity of the corridor and the best publically huntable wild boar and black bear habitat in NC would be squeezed into an even smaller area. BTW, I no longer hunt but I am in favor of maintaining what is left of the best wild places.
last edited: 6/30/05 11:56:02 AM”

“"somewhat curvy" come on here we are talking about the Tail Of The Dragon - the mecca for bikers and having been over it recently it is more than "somewhat" curvy and it sees a lot of use from motorcycles”

“If they start now, then can have it finished in 40 years.

Look what happened to the foothills parkway.”

“I'm inclined to think that smoothing out the 'ol dragon would LOOSE a lot of money for the area around it.”

“Yeah the motorcycle parts industry would take a dive.”

“And think of all those poor unemployed EMTs!”

“...and ambulance service and motorcylce retreival service and wrecker service and, and, and.....”

“.....yeah.....those Interstates are really really EVIL! ;-)”

““.....yeah.....those Interstates are really really EVIL! ;-)”
StoveStomper
4:34:42 PM
6/30/05
ignore this user

Like anything they have plusses and minuses.”

“Almost as evil as Walmart and the RNC and and and, Bert! Yeah, Bert.”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....
Bert IS EVIL!
LOL”

“simple construction techniques like this would open the route quickly and inexpensively


last edited: 6/30/05 3:59:54 PM”

“i gotta admit, that when i lived in Robbinsville, (Graham County, NC) it was a real pain to try to go anywhere because of the lack of roads. 129 was a hazard, especially in the summer because of the motorcycles and in the winter from the trees that fell on it.

BUT, i cannot imagine what a mess it would be to try and build another better road thru there. IT'd take YEARS and YEARS to finish and wouldn't really benefit that many people. I 40 is on the other side of the park and HWY 65 goes over the mountains to Chattanooga out of Murphy.”

“no more new roads any where please--”