But considering the history of this road - the 1944 plan, the hillside collapse during earlier iterations of the viaduct - it makes sense that the government would spend that money on it.

I'll be surprised if the "missing link" ever gets linked. How long have they been trying to build it? How many millions spent?
Time to stop throwing good money after bad and move on.

-Sugarfatpie (AKA Alex Pulsipher)

"X-Rays are a hoax."-Lord Kelvin

It makes you wonder how we could ever afford to have a road built over the mountains . . . in a low tech era. I wonder how much such a project would cost if started today?

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

Unbelievable that half the funds for the Smokies park would go to a freaking bridge. That (hopefully) will never be linked. That (I believe) isn't even within the park boundary. That doesn't help alleviate the huge traffic problems the park has. That doesn't purchase more land to add to the park. That doesn't do anything to help with the wooly adelgid destroying the park's hemlocks. That doesn't build or repair trails. That doesn't stop the rampant development at the park boundary.

And as an aside, it is the HORSE trails that get maintenance. Why? Because horses ruin the trails and fill the streams with sediment and nitrates and microbes from their effluent. Do any hiking trails get any maintenance? No.

And many hiking trails get ruined by horses that aren't supposed to be on those trails. While our pols like Jimmy Duncan have never shown much interest in "bridging" the huge maintenance funding shortfall.

I am amused by the use of the phrase "missing link" to describe something in our lovely area of mountains. Might be a cousin!

"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"