CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The 2009 rock slide on U.S. Highway 64 that nearly cut off Polk County’s Copper Basin for months shook up more than the Ocoee River Gorge, says state Rep. Eric Watson, R-Cleveland.
TO LEARN MOREPeople wishing to follow the Corridor K project can do so at http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/corridork/default.htm
It also renewed interest in Corridor K, the proposed wider route through the gorge, he said.
“It [the rock slide] was an eye-opener,” Watson said before the start of his pre-legislative town hall meetings across a district that includes Polk and Meigs counties and part of Bradley County. The Tennessee General Assembly convenes Tuesday.
The Corridor K project has been on the drawing board since the 1960s, but possible costs and routes remain unsettled and the state has not committed to construction funding.
“There was a time when we held meetings about Corridor K where I was lucky to have six or seven people,” Watson said. “I feel we are closer than we have ever been.”
He said Gov.-elect Bill Haslam, a former Knoxville mayor, is well aware of the Ocoee slides and separate rockfalls that closed Interstate 40 between Knoxville and North Carolina.
Corridor K would begin at exit 20 on Interstate 75 in Bradley County and run about 44 miles east to Dillsboro, N.C., said County Mayor D. Gary Davis, recently elected chairman of the Southeast Tennessee Development District.
On Sept. 21, a notice of intent was filed in the Federal Register to begin a new Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Corridor K, said Jennifer Flynn, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
The next steps, she said, will be to decide which of the alternate routes through the gorge will be considered. Decisions on which routes to eliminate will be done by state and federal planners and consultants along with a Citizens Resource Team, and the decision is expected by spring, Flynn said.
The draft environmental statement is scheduled to be finished by the summer of 2012 and the preferred route will be in the final statement, she said.
The public will have opportunities for input throughout the process, Flynn said.
On Wednesday, the Cleveland Metropolitan Planning Organization again put Corridor K on its list of priorities. The MPO does transportation planning for the metropolitan area, which includes Bradley and Polk counties.
Contact Randall Higgins at rhiggins@timesfreepress.com or 423-314-1029.