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NC Segments11/04/09, The Smoky Mountain News Residents value rural heritage and environment in highway debate An overwhelming majority of citizens who showed up at a public hearing in Robbinsville spoke out against the Corridor K road project last Thursday (Oct. 29). 11/02/09, Times Free Press Corridor K, the 1960s-era highway proposed to connect Chattanooga and Asheville, N.C., also could bring growth to Polk County and keep its residents connected to the rest of the region, local supporters say. 10/29/09, Citizen-Times DOT to hold hearing on Corridor K ROBBINSVILLE -- The N.C. Department of Transportation will hold a public hearing today on its plans to reroute U.S. 74 through Graham County. The plan for the project, known as Corridor K, calls for rerouting the highway out of the Nantahala Gorge onto a proposed four-lane highway through rural Graham County. Supporters say the proposal would bring economic development to the area and provide a faster route for trucks. Environmental groups oppose the proposal, saying it is unnecessary and would spoil wildlife habitats, farmland and wilderness areas. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Graham County Community Building, 196 Knight St., Robbinsville. An open house to answer questions about the plan runs from 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Read more... 10/28/09, Graham Sentinel Graham Sentinel Top of the front page fold Prevent the Ruin of Stecoah Valley: Find A Better Way for Corridor K Read more by Downloading .pdf here 10/28/09, Graham Sentinel Graham Sentinel Bottom of the front page fold Road Project Threatens Mountain Environment and Economy Read more by Downloading .pdf here 10/21/09, The Smoky Mountain News Corridor K brings anywhere America right here to WNC When President John F. Kennedy formed a federal-state committee in 1963 known as the President's Appalachian Regional Commission, one out of every three people living in Appalachia was living below the poverty line. Millions of Appalachians were fleeing for work in other regions, and per capita income was 23 percent lower than the U.S. average. One of the solutions proposed by the ARC was to build over 3,000 miles of roads into Appalachia, roads that would bring jobs, wealth and modernization. And the roads did come. The alphabet soup of highway projects that came out of the ARC are visible everywhere in Appalachia today -- Corridor B, for example, or more commonly known as Interstate 26, was completed in 2003 at a cost of $250 million -- for the last nine miles of highway blasted through mountains from Asheville to Tennessee. Read more... 10/08/2009, The Graham Star Corridor K gets formal DOT hearing The North Carolina Department of Transportation is planning a formal public hearing in Robbinsville on the 10-mile extension of Corridor K through Graham County. The public is invited to speak out on the project. Comments will be placed in the record and sent to Raleigh. The $400 million project would reroute U.S. 74 between Robbinsville and Stecoah, bypassing the Nantahala Gorge with a new four-lane road. Several bridges and tunnels are proposed according to various alternative routes. Read more... 10/08/2009, The Smoky Mountain Times Town protests state grab of highway funds Bryson City leaders protested a move by the state that has cost Western North Carolina millions of dollars in money for roads. The Board of Aldermen met Monday night to discuss the Appalachian Development Highway System. The federal government approved funding for a network of highways through the area in 1965. 09/30/2009, The Smoky Mountain Times A road project known as Corridor K will boast the longest tunnel in the state of North Carolina if built as planned: a 2,807-foot passage through the side of a mountain in the Stecoah area of Graham County. Construction on a missing section of Corridor K including the tunnel is slated to start in 2014, although the timeline is admittedly "ambitious," according to Joel Setzer, head of the N.C. Department of Transportation Division 14, a 10-county mountain region. The highway will be the first four-lane road blazed into Robbinsville. The tiny town and county seat of Graham is currently accessible only by winding two-lane roads no matter how you approach it. Read more... 09/29/09, Citizen-Times, By Jordan Schrader Western North Carolina local governments see imbalance in road funding Western North Carolina should be allowed to spend federal funds on an unfinished network of mountain highways without giving up other road money to the rest of the state, a growing number of local elected officials say. Local boards are calling on the General Assembly and Congress to change how they fund construction of the Appalachian Development Highway System. 08/06/2009, The Graham Star, By: James Budd DOT moves ahead with $400 million road Comments sought on 'tunnel road' under the Appalachian Trail The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has officially opened public comment on a nearly $400 million road construction project rerouting U.S. 74 for 10 miles between Robbinsville and Stecoah. Two alternative routes would require a nearly 2,900-foot tunnel through Stecoah Gap more than 500 feet beneath the Appalachian Trail. The four-lane road, which would close part of a 20-mile missing link in North Carolina’s section of the Corridor K project connecting Asheville and Chattanooga, Tenn., is set to be let for construction in 2014. Read more... 07/02/09, The Macon County News, By D. Linsey Wisdom DOT planning responds to demand for transparency Determining future road projects is a process now under construction after an order from Gov. Bev Perdue demanded more transparency throughout the Department of Transportation's (DOT) planning procedures. Members of the state came to the table with the sixcounty Rural Planning Organization (RPO), which includes Macon County, on Thursday, June 26, to outline its new process for road building prioritization. Read more... Download .pdf of DOT planning responds to demand for transparency 11/04/08, Smoky Mountain News Residents value rural heritage and environment in highway debate An overwhelming majority of citizens who showed up at a public hearing in Robbinsville spoke out against the Corridor K road project last Thursday (Oct. 29). 10/8/08, Smoky Mountain News Corridor K alternatives need to be developed On a hot Sunday in August my wife and I walked the Appalachian Trail out of Stecoah Gap in Graham County to climb the 5,062-foot Cheoah Bald. All week the news had reported code-red ozone days for the higher elevations, and since this 11-mile round trip hike was particularly demanding, we thought we might have been better off breathing second-hand smoke somewhere while eating French fries. Read more... 8/21/2008, Environment News Service North Carolina Plans Four-Lane Highway in National Forest ROBBINSVILLE, North Carolina, August 21, 2008 (ENS) - A four-lane highway that would cut through a portion of the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina would have little impact on the ecosystem, according to a new draft environmental impact study by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Area conservation groups say that conclusion is wrong. Read more... 8/28/2008, Citizen-Times.com Here's a road that simply shouldn't get built A recently released environmental impact statement (EIS) gave a thumbs-up to construction of a section of a project called Corridor K. The section would relocate part of U.S. 74 in Graham County from U.S. 129 in Robbinsville to N.C. 28 in Stecoah. The statement, released by the N.C. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, concludes that environmental damage resulting from building the road can be mitigated. Read more... 8/26/08, Mountain Xpress Files The Green Scene - Looking on the bright side It’s late August in Western North Carolina, and the trees are drooping due to lack of rain. The French Broad River is at a record low level, gas prices are higher than ever and the skies are stained with smog. Yet the message at the kickoff of the Southern Energy & Environment Expo in Fletcher on Aug. 21 was distinctly optimistic. Some prominent figures in the region’s environmental community assembled at the start of the three-day event to sound off about solutions to widespread energy issues that they say can be embraced immediately. Read more... 1/9/08, Smoky Mountain News DOT road hearings have potential for controversy "A public hearing on dozens of proposed road projects in the region — including the controversial Southern Loop in Jackson County, the Siler Road extension in Macon County, and Corridor K through Swain County — will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 15, outside Andrews." Read more...
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