Paving Over Old Smoky

With all eyes recently focused on "bridges to nowhere," it's easy to forget that pork-paved transportation projects aren't a native species of Alaska, but an infestation plaguing most of Congress.  Case in point:  the North Shore Road in North Carolina. A pet project of Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC), who secured a $16 million earmark for the initial study, the road would plow two-lanes of asphalt through the largest remaining roadless area in the eastern United States in the nation's most visited national park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The projected cost to taxpayers for this scheme?  At least $600 million.

The North Shore Road is a hopelessly out of date project and another perfect example of what happens when Congress's earmark fever infects transportation decision-making.  In 1943, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) dammed the Little Tennessee River to provide power for the nearby Alcoa Aluminum plant, a project considered critical to the war effort.  Construction of the dam created Fontana Lake, submerging North Carolina Route 288 (NC 288).  As compensation for the lost road, the TVA, U.S. Department of the Interior, State of North Carolina, and Swain County entered into an agreement to rebuild a road along the approximate route of NC 288, but only if Congress chose to authorize funds for the project.

Sixty years later the road hasn't been built and the area has changed so dramatically that spending $600 million on a new road is not only wasteful, it's patently ridiculous. Another road, much of it four lanes wide, already runs along the south shore of Fontana Lake in Swain County, satisfying the region's transportation demands and limiting the commercial need for a second road.  In addition, the area where the North Shore Road is proposed is one of the largest remaining undeveloped tracts of forest in the eastern United States.   

Furthermore, a chorus of voices have lined up against the road.  The National Park Service, which built about seven miles of the road between 1948 and 1970, stopped when it realized how much damage a road would cause the park.  In February 2003, the Swain County Commission passed a resolution supporting a $52 million settlement in lieu of the road, and a similar resolution was passed by the Bryson City Board of Alderman a month later.  North Carolina Governor Michael Easley also supports a settlement in lieu of the road.  After release of a draft study document last week, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander from neighboring Tennessee reaffirmed his opposition to the road, calling it a "terrible idea," and stated his support for a monetary settlement.

But Rep. Taylor believes a road, no matter the cost, is the only way to settle the terms of the 1943 agreement.  Fortunately, this just isn't true.  In fact, two of the four signatories of the original agreement, and those arguably with the most to gain or lose, already support a monetary settlement.  Such a settlement would also be the most beneficial solution for Great Smoky Mountains National Park and certainly for federal taxpayers, who would save $552 million. 

Congress will have the opportunity to settle this issue once and for all when it takes up the 2007 transportation spending bill.  It can grant Swain County the $52 million settlement it seeks. With luck there may even be a little of that original $16 million earmark remaining to get the ball rolling.  Doing so, however, would only be treating the symptoms of a large problem.