Alexander, others to call for end of 'Road to Nowhere'
From Staff ReportsOriginally published: March 28. 2007 3:01AM
Last modified: March 28. 2007 1:08AM
A group of members of Congress will issue a call today for Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to end plans for the controversial "Road to Nowhere" in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., from Maryville, U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and other members of the Tennessee and North Carolina delegations have scheduled a 1 p.m. press conference in Washington, D.C.
They will call for end to plans to build a North Shore road and to instead award a cash settlement to Swain County, North Carolina.
The road was initially planned as repayment from the federal government to Swain County because a state highway was flooded when TVA built Fontana Dam in the 1940s. Additional acreage was also incorporated into Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Later construction of a state road on the south shore of Fontana Lake negated much of the need for the road replacement. The federal government has never built a North Shore road nor paid Swain County for its loss of land from the tax rolls.
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