Construction Work to begin on Gatlinburg - Pigeon Forge Spur (441) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials have announced that starting November 5th construction will begin on the section of U.S. 441 know as the Spur which connects Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Spur sees plenty of use - an estimated 11 million vehicles a year and since the construction project on the Spur is scheduled to be completed by March 3, 2009 at a cost of $6.3 million, many will be impacted the during this major thoroughfare in the Smokies improvement.

In order to reduce the impact of those who use the spur in their day to day driving or those visiting the area, the national park service has mandated that lane closures will be avoided during peak periods and in order to accelerate work during January through May the construction being performed by Charles Blalock and Sons will be running 24/7 and lane closures will be permitted around the clock.

Motorists will also be happy to know that the national park service will not allow construction work to be permitted on the Spur during national holidays other than the tunnels repair work and slope stabilization on Norton Creek.

The first phase of construction work to be done on the Spur will take place from November 5th through December of this year and will cause single lane closures on both the northbound and southbound lanes. None of these lane closures will be allowed during the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

In order for the engineers to evaluate the Northbound tunnel on the Spurs lighting system, one of the lanes will be closed on November 7th reducing traffic headed towards Pigeon forge to a single lane. Other work slated to be done to the tunnel is to repair the drainage systems which will start early in 2008.

Phase 2 of the construction project on the Spur will take place from January 3rd to May 24th, 2008. The construction projects to be done to the Spur in this phase are:

• Lighting repair/replacement to the Northbound Tunnel
• Drainage repair to Northbound Tunnel
• Repairing the Slope on the west side of the Spur at Norton Creek where there was a previous landslide
• Increase the clearance height at the Huskey Grove overpass
• Improvements to the culverts and drainage of the Spur

While this work is ongoing, if the weather cooperates the repaving of the Spurs surface will commence in March 2008.

Phase 3 of the Spurs construction which will run during peak visitation times in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from May 25th until December 2008 which is when the Spur sees the most traffic.

During this phase of construction the roads paving operations will continue but there will be no lane closures on weekends. Weekends according to the National park service are defined as beginning at noon on Friday and end at sunrise on Monday morning.

During Phase 3 of the Spurs construction work will not be permitted on legal holidays, the entire month of October and the week of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

The last phase which runs from January 2009 until March of 2009 should be last minute clean up as the contractor and the park service expect the majority of the work to be completed by phase 3.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson released a press statement explaining that the reason for such a long construction schedule "is due to the numerous restrictions placed on the work schedule to avoid lane closures during peak periods and to lessen disruptions to motorists," and that "In addition, during the design development of this project, a high priority was given to institute stringent safety measures to help avoid accidents on this heavily traveled roadway.