TDOT and 321 East Parkway

Where else but in Tennessee do people remove mountains, install concrete barriers to keep the mountains back and then paint the walls to make them less visable. There has got to be a joke in there somewhere.

TDOT is breaking new ground in the area of removing mountains and painting walls to look like the mountains. Gatlinburg and the TDOT can be proud of their breakthrough design strategies. The city can now do away with any building code requirements having to do with the outside of a structure. We can build a nice concrete block building and paint it to look like a nice mountain log cabin or the governor's mansion, or maybe even the Parthenon or how about a replica of the Mountain View Inn, destroyed a few years by Gatlinburg, or whatever we like. That will reduce construction costs quite a bit as well as speed up development. And we're always looking for ways to speed up development aren't we?

Gatlinburg will be the butt of jokes for years to come as tourists drive the concrete corridor and look, in bewilderment, at the concrete barrier walls painted to look like they are rock walls and the larger walls painted like treeless nothings and wonder why things were not left as they were since the paint is attempting to make things look like they used to be. The view should be picturesque as the tourists look out over the painted short barriers to see the mountains. As they take pictures and people across the country view those pictures they too will be able to appreciate what Gatlinburg and the State of Tennessee have done and reputations of both should grow in leaps and bounds. Southern Living should be able to do at least a couple of stories on the subject of Tennessee landscaping techniques and maybe My South can tape a couple of episodes.

When, as hoped, thousands and tens of thousands of cars use the concrete corridor, you might ask Gatlinburg if any thought has been given to what they will do at light 3 in Gatlinburg? Do you suppose we can look forward to traffic backed up to City Hall or maybe even to Glades similar to the backup at the intersection of Rt 66 and Chapman/Dolly Parton highways?

As was explained during a meeting on the project several months ago, the Community Based Resource Team, made up of area citizens, has no authority. That's fair since no one has any responsibility for the debacle that is now attempting to be mitigated. Their primary purpose was to share the blame. The Resource Team's choice was to agree with TDOT's representatives to paint the walls or to leave them as they are. At least the walls on I40 have some texture, Gatlinburg's looks like basement walls and will continue to look like painted basement walls. Apparently the construction company has one design for walls whether for a basement of a house or next to a highway..

Citizens of Gatlinburg should resent the State of Tennessee destroying parts of the city and the City Leadership for failing to raise public awareness of what was going to be happening to our fair city. Who would have thought, the city government wasn't looking out for citizens.

It should be interesting to watch the remaining phases plod along. The problem TDOT will have is the communities impacted by their project now have an example of their work.

As they say, I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Trust me...