The state representative of Polk County, where a Nov. 10 rock slide still blocks a major east-west highway, will ask his colleagues to show support for an alternate route that could cost $1 billion.
Rep. Eric Watson, R-Cleveland, said he intends to present a resolution asking Tennessee legislators to show support for Corridor K.
The project would replace U.S. Highway 64, which winds along the Ocoee River and is prone to accidents and rock slides, but is currently the most practical route between Cleveland and eastern Polk County.
“I’m asking the entire General Assembly to support this,” Rep. Watson said. “We’re asking that this be made the top priority of the Tennessee Department of Transportation.”
In 1965, the federal government passed a plan to connect the rural South with the East Coast through a series of road projects. Corridor K was one of 27 corridors throughout Appalachia that was supposed to be built, with the federal government paying for 80 percent of the road’s construction cost.