The Foothills Parkway is a national parkway which partly traverses the foothills of the northern Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee, located in the southeastern United States. If completed, the 71-mile parkway will connect U.S. Route 129 along the Little Tennessee River in the west with Interstate 40 along the Pigeon River in the east. Current and future portions pass through parts of Blount, Sevier, and Cocke counties. Large sections cross a series of high ridges running roughly parallel to the Tennessee boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and offer unobstructed views of the Great Smokies to the south and the Tennessee Valley to the north. The oldest unfinished highway project in Tennessee, the Foothills Parkway project has been continuously stalled by funding difficulties since Congress authorized its construction in 1944. As of 2010, only one-third of the parkway had been completed and opened to vehicular traffic, although the right of way for the full length has been acquired. The longest open section consists of a 16.5-mile leg traversing the western flank of Chilhowee Mountain in Blount county, connecting U.S. 129 along the Chilhowee Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River with U.S. 321 in the town of Walland. The other open section is a 6-mile stretch traversing Green Mountain in Cocke county, connecting U.S. 321 in Cosby with I-40 in the Pigeon River valley. The Gatlinburg Bypass, which traverses the eastern flank of Cove Mountain between the north end of Gatlinburg and the national park, connecting to the Great Smoky Mountains Parkway at each end, is also considered part of the parkway. The Great Smoky Mountains Parkway from Gatlinburg north to Pigeon Forge is also National Park Service land, connecting the bypass to the right of way for future sections of the Foothills Parkway at the southern city limit of Pigeon Forge. The parkways are managed by the National Park Service as part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Unlike other national parkways, they are not a separate unit of the national park system. As with other NPS roads, construction is handled by the Federal Highway Administration through the Federal Lands Transportation Program partnership.
Continue reading...From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.