8/21/2008, Environment News Service
North Carolina Plans Four-Lane Highway in National Forest
ROBBINSVILLE, North Carolina, August 21, 2008 (ENS) - A four-lane highway that would cut through a portion of the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina would have little impact on the ecosystem, according to a new draft environmental impact study by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Area conservation groups say that conclusion is wrong. Read more...
8/28/2008, Citizen-Times.com
Here's a road that simply shouldn't get built
A recently released environmental impact statement (EIS) gave a thumbs-up to construction of a section of a project called Corridor K. The section would relocate part of U.S. 74 in Graham County from U.S. 129 in Robbinsville to N.C. 28 in Stecoah.
The statement, released by the N.C. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, concludes that environmental damage resulting from building the road can be mitigated. Read more...
8/26/08, Mountain Xpress Files
The Green Scene - Looking on the bright side
It’s late August in Western North Carolina, and the trees are drooping due to lack of rain. The French Broad River is at a record low level, gas prices are higher than ever and the skies are stained with smog.
Yet the message at the kickoff of the Southern Energy & Environment Expo in Fletcher on Aug. 21 was distinctly optimistic. Some prominent figures in the region’s environmental community assembled at the start of the three-day event to sound off about solutions to widespread energy issues that they say can be embraced immediately. Read more...
8/26/08, Cherokee Scout
Corridor K would not benefit Volkswagen
"Len James tried to make a case for the construction of a four-lane bypass of the Ocoee Gorge on the basis of the needs of the new Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.
There are a number of errors in his reasoning that can be easily verified by consulting the coverage in the business press.
First, the Chattanooga Volkswagen site already has a rail link, which was provided as part of the deal. Most new Volkswagens will be shipped by rail, not truck. Second, this assembly plant will be building cars for the domestic market, not for export. There is no reason to worry about trucking these cars to an Atlantic port for shipment to Europe." Read more...
1/19/08, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
"A highway that potentially
could bring 7,000 new jobs into the region between Chattanooga
and Asheville, N.C., has been approved for study, Tennessee
Department of Transportation officials said Friday. Wes
Hughen, TDOT’s Corridor K project manager,
said Commissioner Gerald Nicely approved conducting a
transportation planning report and a new environmental
impact statement for U.S. Highway 64, or Corridor K.
Mr. Hughen said once the transportation report is complete,
new road alignments will be offered, possibly north and
south of the existing road that runs through the scenic
Ocoee River Gorge." Read
more...
1/15/08,
Chattanooga Times Free Press
'GREASY CREEK, Tenn. -- A road built across Little
Frog Mountain near the Ocoee Gorge would leave a footprint,
no matter how "green" roadbuilders made it,
environmentalists said this week. "There's ways
to build highway with less impact," said
Holly Demuth, executive director of the Stop I-3 Coalition. "But
it still brings in 18-wheelers."' Read more...
1/9/08, Smoky
Mountain News
"A public
hearing on dozens of proposed road projects in the region — including
the controversial Southern Loop in Jackson County, the
Siler Road extension in Macon County, and Corridor K
through Swain County — will
be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 15, outside
Andrews." Read
more...
1/9/08, Polk County News
"The Corridor K project through the Ocoee gorge is once
again entering the Environmental Impact/Design phase.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation is currently
in the process of selecting the firm that will do this
work.
The Corridor K project through the Ocoee gorge is once
again entering the Environmental Impact/Design phase.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation is currently
in the process of selecting the firm that will do this
work. For the 2.6 miles of Hwy. 64 from Hwy. 411 to west
of the Ocoee River, the project is due to be let to contract
some time in the late spring of this year." Read more...
1/9/08, Polk County News
"Four-laning of Hwy. 411 is on the schedule – again – and
work is underway on improving traffic around Mac Point.
The four-laning of 5.2 miles of Hwy. 411 from Welcome
Valley Road in Benton to Lowery Road in Ocoee is scheduled
to be let for bids in summer 2008. The 5.3 miles from
north of Benton to Hwy. 30 should be let to contract
some time in the fall of 2008, according to TDOT spokesperson
Jennifer Osborne." Read
more...
1/7/08, Chattanooga Times Free Press
"Environmentalists in Georgia and North Carolina said Monday the proposed
interstate from Savannah, Ga., to Knoxville remains a threat to the region, even
if it skirts the mountains. The proposed road, called "Interstate 3" or
I-3 for short, has not been designated as an interstate,
but has been proposed as one, officials said. U.S. Rep.
Paul Broun, R-Ga., said this week the route of the highway
could pass the Northeast Georgia mountains and instead
head for Greenville, S.C. Holly Demuth, executive director
of the Stop I-3 Coalition, said Monday that despite the
change, the road could still harm the region by spurring
more residential development. The Stop I-3 Coalition
also opposes improvements or widening of U.S. Highway
64, or Corridor K, through the Ocoee Gorge in Tennessee,
between Chattanooga and the North Carolina border." Read
more...
1/4/08, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
'An error in tabulating votes led to the wrong funding
priorities for area roads in a meeting last month, said
Kim Harpe, Southeast Tennessee Rural Planning Organization
coordinator. "It was my mistake," Ms. Harpe
said. "I
should have double-checked." Ms. Harpe said the
executive board of the Southeast Tennessee RPO will meet
Jan. 17 in Pikeville, Tenn., to vote on the correct funding
list.' Read
more...
12/27/07, Chattanooga Times Free Press
"OCOEE, Tenn. -- Almost a year ago, Polk County
Attorney Denny Mobbs proposed using a rural highway over
Little Frog Mountain as a route for U.S. Highway 64 instead
of the winding Ocoee Gorge. Mr. Mobbs said last week
he believes the route is the most environmentally and
economically responsible." Read
more...
12/26/07, Letter to the Editor, Polk County News
"Routing Corridor K across Little Frog Mountain along
the Forest Service Kinsey Road would be an environmental
and economic catastrophe. Acid pyrite runoff would likely
be released into the Hiwassee River watershed. Lime pellets
must be added periodically in Tellico streams draining
from the little used Cherohala Skyway. Similar problems
resulted from Foothills Parkway construction.
The 2003 TDOT EIS stated many of the 4,600 cars and tractor
trailers per day on U.S. 64 would not drive across Kimsey
Mountain because the route is nine miles longer while
traversing two miles of nine percent grade into the Copper
Basin." Read
more...
12/18/07, The Chattanoogan
"The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) and
the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
(TDEC) today signed a new pact designed to establish
a coordinated planning and development process for transportation
projects. The goal of the Tennessee Environmental Streamlining
Agreement is to ensure that the state's vital transportation
improvements can be implemented without unnecessary delays,
while protecting and enhancing the quality of Tennessee's
environment." Read
more...
11/29/07, Hiwassee
River Watershed Coalition, Inc.
WATR COLUMN (Water Activities Thoroughly Reviewed)
"A poll of businesses is done
'in the blind' as a consultant asserts that 85 of them
support the $2.3 billion highway construction project
that somehow would traverse the rugged Ocoee River
region" Read
more...
11/29/07,Chattanooga
Times Free Press
"Widening Corridor K has been debated since it
first was listed as an economic development corridor
by the Appalachian Regional Commission in 1965. Proponents
of the road say it would bring economic prosperity to
a historically poor region. Environmentalists say a road
would damage the environment, destroy artifacts and cost
billions of dollars better spent elsewhere." Read
more...
11/18/07, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
"An economic study showing the impact of a Chattanooga-to-Asheville,
N.C. highway on a 23-county area will be completed by
mid-December, officials said. Ed Cole, chief of environment
and planning for the Tennessee Department of Transportation,
said U.S. Highway 64, or Corridor K, could be part of
a three-year work plan handed to the Tennessee General
Assembly in May." Read
more...
Most
businesses support Corridor K? What do YOU think?"
10/16/07, Cherokee
Scout
"Snow is aware that some people fear Corridor K’s
association with I-3, but he doesn’t think the
project will provide an 'impetus' for I-3,
a controversial interstate proposal that would stretch
from Savannah, Ga. to Knoxville, Tenn., that Snow opposes. Read
more...
9/24/07, Chattanooga
Times Free Press
"Details of an economic study in the area affected by a Chattanooga-to-Asheville,
N.C., highway will be presented in a series of public meetings next month, officials
said.They are the final stages of an eight-month study looking at the biggest
factors influencing growth and decline in the corridor area of Southeast Tennessee
and western North Carolina, said Melissa Ziegler with Wilbur Smith Associates
of Knoxville. 'Somewhere in this, there is an answer, a collaborative answer," Ms.
Ziegler said. "I don't know what that is.'" Read
more...
5/15/07, Hiwassee River Watershed
Coalition, Inc.
WATR COLUMN (Water Activities Thoroughly Reviewed)
"The remote Kimsey Mountain Road
runs east from Tennessee Highway 30 near Reliance,
up and over peaks as it takes you toward Murphy. This
is a rugged 12-mile-long gravel trail high up in Tennessee’s
Little Frog Wilderness, managed by the U.S. Forest
Service. I drove it today in my pickup truck. Rounding
curve after curve, you bounce along over gravel, even
boulders, as you grip the wheel with both hands and
your tires hug a two-lane path along the rim of a breathtaking
horseshoe-shaped valley. This powerful scene of mountain
splendor is dotted with rhododendron, mountain laurel
and wild azalea. Elevation changes here are dramatic,
ranging from 1,200 to 3,332 feet, according to www.wilderness.com
and the runoff from the steep slopes on the northern
rim of the horseshoe drains into the Hiwassee River." Read
more...
2/8/07, Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition, Inc.
WATR COLUMN (Water Activities Thoroughly Reviewed)
"Nine Tennessee counties rate this project their
top priority" Read
more... |
Photos from March Sierra Club outing and hike in the Little Frog Wilderness, which would be impacted by Corridor K. Hike was about 7.5 miles on the Rock Creek and Dry Pond Lead Trails, starting in the cold and snow of the morning that turned to a beautiful spring day with the snow mainly melted in the afternoon. Afterward hikers took to their vehicles and drove the Kimsey Highway a ways, coming in from the east and TN 68 (Harbuck). Will Skelton writes: "We were absolutely astounded that anyone would think a road should (or even could) be build up the mountain from the east. It would have to ascend a very steep and high mountain wall, then descend and cross numerous valleys as the mountains and ridges are generally running north and south, while the road would run east to west. I understand a big proponent of the road, always takes people in from the western end at Greasy Creek (TN 30), where the climb is more gradual. And that the steepness of this eastern side of the mountains is why TDOT rejected the route four years ago." Photos are available at the website 
