Date: August 10, 2007
Contact: Bob Miller, (865) 436-1207

Managers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park have announced that the work needed to reopen the park’s flood damaged Parson Branch Road is not expected to be finished until about mid-September. The 8 mile-long gravel road, which leads from Cades Cove to U.S. 129 in Blount County, Tenn., has been closed since a May 2003 flood.

A Robbinsville, NC, firm, Herve Cody Contractor, has been at work on the washed-out sections of the road since October 2006. Initially the work was expected to be completed by June 15, 2007, but has been slower than expected, primarily because of the difficulty of moving large quantities of materials and equipment to the work sites via the narrow single-lane primitive road.

Park Superintendent Dale A. Ditmanson said, "In repairing this road we were careful to preserve the leisurely, nearly trail-like, experience, that motorists find most appealing about the road. But, the downside is that spots where the road is wide enough for two trucks to meet and pass are few and far between, so that all movements have to be closely coordinated but are still often delayed."

"Even though the road will still only be a single-lane, one-way byway," Ditmanson concluded, "We have made some structural improvements that will make the road much less susceptible to being washed out again."

Funding for the repairs came from the Federal Highway Administration through the Emergency Relief for Federally-Owned Roads Program. The contract is being administered by engineers from the Federal Highway Administration.

For safety reasons, the road remains closed to all public use until construction is finished.