Displaying items by tag: foothills parkway extension

Critics have called for full Environmental Impact Statement amid threat to Southern Appalachian habitats; previous draft EIS identifies many rare, notable species in project right of way

GATLINBURG — Proposed construction of an unfinished section of Foothills Parkway from Wears Valley to the Gatlinburg Spur would traverse 9.8 miles of natural beauty that is home to multiple rare species identified in a 1994 study.

The federal government last month opened the latest round of public comment on the project, which would traverse Buckeye Knob and Cove Mountain and multiple aquatic and karst environments. Concerns raised by the public over the decades range from impacts on domestic water supplies and endangered or threatened species to the fact the roadway might be a catalyst for excessive tourism infrastructure in Townsend and Wears Valley. 

The proposed route also extends through dense areas of pyrite, a highly acidic sulfate mineral (also known as fool’s gold) that can poison entire watersheds when exposed if proper erosion controls aren’t followed. Contamination of streams and creeks led to the decades-long delay in full construction of the existing parkway section (known as the missing link) that extends from Walland to Wears Valley. 

GATLINBURG — The National Park Service has posted the Foothills Parkway Section 8D Environmental Assessment (EA) for a 30-day public comment period ending Aug. 21. The EA evaluates the construction of nine miles of new parkway from Wears Valley to the Gatlinburg Spur near Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.

(Hellbender Press first reported on this proposal in 2021.) 

A virtual public meeting about the EA and the proposed action will be held at 5 p.m. July 30. The meeting will include a presentation about the overview of the project and give time for the public to ask questions.

Read the EA, learn more about the proposed Foothills Parkway Section 8D project, and provide comments. 

National Park Service via WBIR

Feds and boosters have considered trail network since completion of the “Missing Link”

WEARS VALLEY The National Park Service moved this week into the latest public-input phase regarding proposed construction of a Smokies-area mountain-biking destination on federal land near the current terminus of a recently completed section of Foothills Parkway that runs from Walland to Wears Valley.

The plan calls for miles of single-track mountain bike trails of varying skill levels and vendors catering to bicyclists. Park service documents indicate a rest station with picnic facilities, bathrooms and bicycle rental and repair facilities sited in Wears Cove southeast of the parkway terminus at Wears Cove. The parcel is already part of a federal easement for another extension of the parkway that would connect with the Gatlinburg Spur. 

“The Wears Valley portion of the Foothills Parkway could provide visitors new opportunities to experience the Park through mountain biking because it is within the Park’s general development zone and transportation management zone and is not managed as wilderness,” according to park service documents.

Plans for new parkway segment were hatched long ago; project would also include improvements to Wears Valley park entrance

Just a few years after the “Missing Link” of the Foothills Parkway was finally finished following decades-long delays, the National Park Service now has its sights set on constructing a new 10-mile section of parkway on the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park that would extend from Wears Valley to the heavily traveled Gatlinburg Spur.

The leg of the roadway has long been included in a plan for full completion of the parkway. About 30 miles have been completed from Tallassee, Tennessee to Wears Valley. This section would extend from the current parkway terminus in Wears Valley to the Gatlinburg Spur near Pigeon Forge.

Park officials said in a press release announcing the opening of the project’s public comment period that the unfinished section is the only stretch of incomplete, congressionally approved roadway in the U.S.