Park repairs, maintenance backlogged throughout tri-state area

Chiharu Kawamoto, left, and Akihiro Kawamoto sit near a Civil War monument at Point Park on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, in Lookout Mountain, Tenn.
Chiharu Kawamoto, left, and Akihiro Kawamoto sit near a Civil War monument at Point Park on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015, in Lookout Mountain, Tenn.

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Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia have their share of national parks and historic sites with backlogged maintenance and repair projects.

The National Park Service says deferred maintenance is necessary work on infrastructure such as roads, visitor centers, trails, and campgrounds that has been put off for more than a year. Aging facilities, increasing use of park facilities, and insufficient maintenance funding contribute to growth of the backlog, according to the NPS website.

The site totaled Tennessee's overall tally at $320 million for the 2014 fiscal year. By far the largest share, $179 million, was for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Tennessee portions of the Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park - Lookout Mountain, Signal Point, Missionary Ridge, Orchard Knob and Moccasin Bend - logged $23.6 million.

Georgia's deferred-maintenance total was $99.7 million, including $26.4 million for its portion of the Chickamauga Battlefield park and $16 million for the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.

In Alabama, the Little River Canyon National Preserve near Fort Payne had $1.7 million in deferred needs, and Russell Cave National Monument in Jackson County had just less than $600,000 in needs. The state total was $27.2 million.

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