USA TODAY International Edition
Back from the crack: Section of Blue Ridge reopens
A 20- mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway reopened here Monday, a little more than a month after a giant crack formed in the roadway and forced its shutdown.
Construction workers built temporary bypass lanes for two- way traffic between Milepost 376 and Mount Mitchell State Park, just north of Asheville.
The crack has been repaired and paved over at a cost of $ 400,000, said Michael Molling, the parkway’s chief of maintenance and engineering.
A permanent, multimillion- dollar fix for the slope underneath the USA’s most popular road will start in November, he said.
The parkway reopened just days before the Labor Day holiday week- end, one of its busiest travel periods. The Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs 469 miles through North Carolina and Virginia, is one of the most popu- lar parts of the National Parks Service system. It attracted more than 15 million visitors in 2012.
“We really wanted to try to accom- modate really everybody, the communities, the visitors and everybody, that knows and loves that stretch of the parkway this time of the year,” said Leesa Sutton Brandon, the parkway’s partnerships and community outreach coordinator.
The speed limit is down to 15 mph on the temporary lanes. The Craggy Gardens Visitor Center and picnic area also reopened on Monday.
The crack, which had become something of a tourist attraction, was about 6 inches wide, several feet deep and 300 feet long. The 20- mile stretch had been closed since July 12.
Steve Stinnett, parkway chief ranger, said heavy rain was likely to blame for the crack. The Asheville area was the second- wettest in July among 180 cities studied by the National Climatic Data Center. It had 51.81 inches of rain, topped only by Hilo, Hawaii’s 55.92 inches.
The news of the reopening was welcomed in Asheville, where businesses rely on fall tourism. “I think we are all thrilled and appreciative of everything the Blue Ridge Parkway officials have done to try to have the road open in advance of not only Labor Day weekend but a busy fall season,” said Marla Tambellini, deputy director of the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The permanent fix will require months of work this winter. The road will be closed again while crews excavate a fill slope of 100 feet. Workers will replace the drainage system and stabilize the slope with a mechanical system, such as pilings, Molling said.
They will then put the roadway back in its old spot. Work should be complete by early spring, he said.