Repairs Under Way on Highway Closed by Landslide in the Smoky Mountains
Work crews have begun removing debris, stabilizing the hillside and building an access road to start repairs on U.S. 441 between Gatlinburg, Tenn., and Cherokee, N.C., where a landslide Jan. 15 took out a 200-ft section of road.
APAC-Atlantic, Harrison Division, of Knoxville started work Jan. 28 and is expected to complete it “in a few weeks,” according to National Park Service officials. The estimated cost is $200,000.
The highway, known as Newfound Gap Road, carries about 6,000-7,000 vehicles daily through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The slide moved about 90,000 cu yds of trees, brush and dirt about 900 yds down the mountain and left a gash 40-50-ft deep, according to Dana Soehn, park spokeswoman.
The slide was caused by heavy rains — more than nine inches of rain in three days — and by a previously-uniscovered subterranean spring.
The road grade is 15% at the site and the mountain grade is 1:1, Soehn said.
The Federal Highway Administration brought in engineers, geothermal experts and surveyors to examine the site.
APAC-Atlantic crews will be able to mobilize equipment on the closed highway section in North Carolina and in parking pull-off areas in the area, Soehn said.
The FHWA has posted a pre-solicitation for qualified contractors for highway reconstruction phase, estimated to cost between $3 million and $7 million.
The contract is expected to be awarded by mid-February with work to be finished by mid-May to early June, park officials said.
An additional 150 ft or more of highway will have to be removed for the reconstruction, Soehn said.
The two-lane asphalt highway was built in the 1930s with the park. The slide section, downhill from the original road, was part of a realignment construction in the 1960s, Soehn said.
The slide is above Beech Flats Prong, part of the headwaters of the Oconaluftee River, a popular trout stream.
