Posted on 01/20/2013 7:32:44 AM PST by Aquamarine
Newfound Gap which is the main thoroughfare connecting Gatlinburg and Cherokee N.C., through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is closed indefinitely.
(Excerpt) Read more at wate.com ...
That is one twisty-turny switchback laden road.
their = there
They should be motivated to repair this road quickly since it gets about nine million visitors annually. Although it will be a challenge, the whole side of the mountain in that section is gone.
-——90,000 cubic yards——
Well..... they threw away the style book and gave a meaningful measure. They gave the quantity in Volume rather than weight, tons.
There may be hope in the land of the presstitutes
Harrah’s immediately sent out an email blast notifying their customers of an alternative route. I thought that was a pretty good idea on their part. Although, I guess most customers already know of alternate routes to Cherokee ;)
For the record, we had 6 inches of rain in just a few days. The mountains get more, the volume of running water was great.
We got one of these in the Sierras.
“washed out”, and marked as closed by the forest service.
So one day, at least 10 years later, I drove up it, just to see the wash out, and see what enterprising 4-wheelers have done to overcome the problem.
Well, the road is blocked with a locked gate (best quality, govt gate). I’m sure some private property owners up the road have a key, there were fresh tracks going through.
So this is carry-over from the roadless initiative. Keeping us out of our forests.
Newfound Gap is an appropriate name, I guess.
My poor mountains! I’driven up and over 100’s of times. Well iam sure the mtns will recover quickly.
Bet Harrah’s wont like this one little bit....
A few years ago, a flood washed out two roads here. It was just a matter of days before they were repaired. Of course, this is Texas and both were just this much shy of the park road so less gov hassle.
If you’d driven this road, you’d know repair will not be easy or quick. Many sections have blasted rock on one side and a guardrail between you and at least several hundred feet down on the other. The failed roadbed there slid a thousand feet down.
It’s a beautiful drive, even in winter. Very impressive aqua blue icicles on those rock faces, thirty, forty feet long. The sun never hits them.
Driving with the cloud cover below you like a white ocean is an unusual thing in the east.
the landslide is around the length of a football field and 45-50 feet deep. The slide is still active and an assessment team, made up of Park Staff and Federal Highways employees, observed debris continuing to fall.
Kerping ... thought you might want to see this.
I guess they can go up the back through Chattanooga and in on the TN side, or veer over to 40 past Waynesville, into TN and down, but that route has issues of it’s own with landslides.. How many miles would that add, fifty at least? Much less scenic. Whover brought up Harrah’s is right, Cherokee will be singing the blues until it’s repaired.
Claim there’s gold in the dirt.
Get Parker Schnabel down there and he will have it excavated in a week.
(watch Gold Rush?)
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