MCMINN/POLK PROJECTS
McMinn: State Highway 30 from Athens city limits to County Road 608, a length of 3.6 miles. Estimated completion May 31, 2012. Estimated cost $17.7 million.
Polk: U.S. Highway 411 from Benton city limits to SR-30, 5.3 miles. Estimated completion Nov. 30, 2011. Estimated cost $23.2 million.
Polk: U.S. 411 from south of Lowery Road to south of Welcome Valley Road, 5.4 miles. Estimated completion Oct. 21, 2011. Estimated cost $28.6 million.
Polk: U.S. 64 from east of U.S. 411 to west of the Ocoee River, 2.2 miles. Estimated completion Sept. 30, 2010. Estimated cost $10.2 million
Source: Tennessee Department of Transportation
ETOWAH, Tenn. — A summer of roadwork is bringing what will become a loop of four-lane highways through McMinn and Polk counties.
Work began this season to widen a portion of state Highway 30 between Athens and Etowah, and the project to widen U.S. Highway 411 from near Etowah through Benton continues. U.S. Highway 64 from the Bradley County line toward the Ocoee River gorge also is being widened.
And while all this work on the ground goes on, so does planning for an eventual Corridor K through the Ocoee River gorge.
“I understand people have been looking forward to this (the widening of SR 30) for a long time,” said Teresa Brick, who works for project contractor Wright Brothers Construction Co.
Her job is keeping highway traffic separated from giant earthmovers crossing a Highway 30 intersection in McMinn County.
The deficiencies of Highway 30 caused Etowah to lose an industrial prospect, a distribution company, because there was no four-lane link to I-75 from the site, said Durant Tullock, executive director of the Etowah Area Chamber of Commerce.
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Staff Photo by Randall Higgins Teresa Brick of Wright Brothers Construction endures the summer heat to keep state Highway 30 traffic in McMinn County separated from heavy equipment moving along the construction zone. A portion of the highway link between Athens and Etowah is being widened to four lanes.
“They were going to have a truck going in or out every four minutes,” he said.
Last week, the Tennessee Department of Transportation also announced the completion of a crucial planning step toward Corridor K, which will link Southeast Tennessee to North Carolina. Ten different routes for the proposed highway have been released and the next step is an environmental study, TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely said.
Linda Caldwell, executive director of the Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association, which covers Polk, McMinn and Monroe counties, said a network of bigger highways probably won’t affect tourism very much. “The type of visitors we have prefer scenic byways,” she said.
Ms. Caldwell said industrial development always has been important to Appalachia as well, dating back to the copper mines of the 19th century in Copperhill.
The association promotes a tourism trail to various museums devoted to past industries such as the textile museum in Englewood and the mining museum in Copperhill.
“So these projects will also bring economic benefit,” she said.
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Randall Higgins covers news in Cleveland, Tenn., for the Times Free Press. He started work with the Chattanooga Times in 1977 and joined the staff of the Chattanooga Times Free Press when the Free Press and Times merged in 1999. Randall has covered Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia and Alabama. He now covers Cleveland and Bradley County and the neighboring region. Randall is a Cleveland native. He has bachelor’s degree from Tennessee Technological University. His awards ...
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