| 01/23/10 05:23 PM |
#952
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Kay Cooper (Carpenter)
FYI
Smokies Awards $24.7 Million Contract for Next Phase of Foothills Parkway
Officials at Great Smoky Mountains National Park have announced that
the Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division has awarded a contract to Bell &
Associates Highway Construction of Brentwood, TN to design and construct
the next section of the uncompleted Foothills Parkway. The contract was
awarded for $24.7 million, with the funding being provided by the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), to design and construct the 800
foot-long bridge # 2 on the eastern end of the unfinished Wears Valley to
Walland segment of the Foothills Parkway known as the “missing link”.
When completed, bridge # 2 will be a graceful, elevated roadway that
forms a serpentine curve and will be supported by four piers up to 100 feet
above the ground, as it carries the road across two ravines on the south
slope of Chilhowee Mountain. It is the longest single bridge needed to
complete the “missing link”. Work on the new bridge is set to start on
January 15, 2010 and is scheduled for completion in November 2011.
“Many people are familiar with the iconic Linn Cove Viaduct that
carries the Blue Ridge Parkway around Grandfather Mountain.” said Great
Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent, Dale A. Ditmanson. “This new
bridge is very nearly as long as that structure and likely to become just
as note-worthy.”
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