park schedules open house of un-opened section of foothills parkway

Submitted Photo

The beautiful view

published: April 17 2008 10:44 AM updated:: April 22 2008 04:37 PM

Park managers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park have announced that the public will be invited to an Open House on the un-opened section of the Foothills Parkway in Blount County (Tenn.) from 10 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, May 3 and 4, 2008.
Park Superintendent, Dale Ditmanson said, “This 9.5 mile scenic roadway was last opened to motorists in April 1998 and has been under construction nearly non-stop since then. During that ten year period, the National Park Service (NPS) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) awarded and managed two contracts totaling $17.5 under which three graceful, curving bridges have been completed.”
“We are really looking forward to having our neighbors see what has been accomplished since they were last able to visit the site.” Ditmanson said. “The entire section has spectacular vistas and the bridges seem to hang suspended up to 80 feet above the ground. We believe that they will someday become icons of the Foothills Parkway much as the Linn Cove Viaduct is of the Blue Ridge Parkway.”
Motorists will enter the area via the Foothills Parkway interchange off U.S. 321 about 11 miles north of Maryville. Upon entering they will be greeted by graduates of “Blount County Experience Your Smokies” who will hand out safety and other information about the Parkway.
The unopened segment is a dead-end and has a gravel surface, but no guardrails, striping or signs so it is not opened to vehicles on a regular basis for safety reasons. Normally the closed section is open only to
hikers, cyclists and horseback riders.

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User Comments

#1 wondering... commented, on April 17, 2008 at 1:30 p.m.:

Is that picture part of the road that is closed to vehicles? I only see a curb but no guardrail to keep a car from going over.

#2 Excited! commented, on April 18, 2008 at 8:18 a.m.:

Is this "opening" mean that one can now drive from US 321 on the Parkway all the way to Gatlinburg? How Cool!

#3 Scenic Byway commented, on April 18, 2008 at 8:25 a.m.:

The Foothills Parkway is the LAST Scenic Highway that remains unfinished in the USA. Uncontrolled Development is fast making it impossible to finish. Ugly road cuts and mountaintop removal are making the "scenic" view a moot point. If the Cove Mountain project in Wears Valley, pushed so hard by Commissioner Kenneth Whaley is passed, that subdivision of hundreds of houses will sit along the proposed route that is unfinished. And Whaley sits on the hillsides task force study group; he championed the recommendation to allow even steeper road cuts of up to 21% so he can develop even more of the mountaintop. It won't be "scenic" when Whaley gets done with it. I don't believe that road will ever be finished - local support for unrestricted development is eating into that possibility every day. Our county commission and planning commission are far too heavily weighted by developers. Scenic doesn't count in the equation any more.