Newfound Gap slide repairs under way

 

(as appeared in The Daily Times, Maryville, TN. Feb. 28)

By Dick Byrd

Tourism leaders and businesses on both sides of the Tennessee-North Carolina state line are hoping, and some are pushing, for quick completion of a huge landslide on Newfound Gap Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Work has already been underway for 6 days to rebuild the slide area located about 7 miles below Newfound Gap on the North Carolina side.

The slide is huge. Park spokesperson Molly Schroer says an underground spring, unknown until the slide, exacerbated the problem caused by the heavy rainfall in January, estimated at 14 to 17 inches in all. The road has been closed since the slide. Roadblocks are in place at Indian Gap about a mile below Newfound Gap and at the Collins Creek Picnic Area...both on the North Carolina side of the park. Tennessee traffic can still travel from Sugarlands to Newfound Gap and on to the Clingmans Dome Road and Indian Gap. Though the Clingmans Dome Road has been closed for winter the park is opening it again weather permitting.
Construction workers at the slide site are filling the yawning hole with rock, some from the slide and more trucked in. In all an estimated 4 thousand truckloads of rock will be used to fill the giant hole. Below the roadway itself, where the side of the mountain spread out through the forest there is a giant mud field. The Park service has already seeded that area with native plant seeds and plans on letting nature take its course rehabilitating the area.
Tourism businesses from Townsend to Gatlinburg, from Cosby to Cherokee have been feeling the dent being made in tourist visits because of the huge landslide. Park visits were down in January 1.4%. Schroer has no idea right now if February will be similar.
Phillips& Jordan, Inc. of Robinsville, NC won the bidding process to repair the road and has a May 15 deadline. The contractor will be paid $3,989,890 if the work is completed by May 15th. If it finishes before then it can earn $18,000 for each day before May 15th. The incentive money would come from the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians for each day up to 14. An additional incentive of $18,000 per day up to 14 more would come from the National Park Service. If the work is not completed by May 15th an $18,000 per day penalty would be accessed. Molly Schroer told The Daily Times any penalty money would not go to the tribe, but would go to the park service.