Gatlinburg Pigeon Forge Spur Reopened !
Tennessee Department of Transportation re-opened one lane of US 441 (The Spur) southbound in Sevier County shortly before 3:30 p.m. this afternoon, nearly two weeks ahead of schedule.
TDOT was forced to close the southbound lanes of the roadway after a rockslide threatened the stability of the mountainside on January 25. With the southbound lane now reopened, TDOT expects to remove the detour and reopen both northbound lanes to northbound traffic by Tuesday, weather permitting.
Phase two of the project will begin immediately which will include the installation of a stained rock facade, restriping and repaving of the impacted area. In order to reduce the impact to weekend travelers along the route, the contractor will be required to keep two lanes of traffic open in each direction beginning at 6 a.m. on Fridays through 12:01 a.m. on Mondays. The entire emergency project is scheduled to be finished on or before April 30, 2010.
Pigeon Forge-Gatlinburg Rock Slide Progress
The Smoky Mountains National Park Service has nearly cleaned up the second rock slide to occur between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg Tennessee. Slight back-ups will occur both on north and south- bound Spur tonight between 7:00 and 8:00 pm while the detour is removed.
By Monday morning a local road company had cleared away all the fallen rock, dirt and trees from Friday’s slide on the southbound Pigeon Forge - Gatlinburg Spur. Park officials believe that the slope above the slide site is now stabilized, but as a precaution, jersey barriers will funnel south-bound traffic into the left lane away from the rock face for several weeks to allow time for any remaining material to come down.
Tonight between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. workers from the Park, TDOT, a local road company, and Pigeon Forge will be working together to remove all the cones, barriers and signs that were installed last Friday to detour all the south-bound traffic towards Gatlinburg via the Huskey Grove Road overpass. When they finish tonight, traffic flow will be exactly the same as it was prior to the Friday slide. Tonight’s work was scheduled at 7:00 p.m. to avoid heavier commuter and school-related traffic, but minor delays are likely so motorists are advised to plan around that work period or take an alternate route to avoid the Spur.
