The Blue Ridge Parkway is 100% Open for Travel - No More Detours! It’s official, all 469.1 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway are open for travel again with no detours, just in time for beautiful weather over the 4th of July holiday weekend.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is 100% Open for Travel - No More Detours!
It’s official, all 469.1 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway are open for travel again with no detours, just in time for beautiful weather over the 4th of July holiday weekend.
Today at 2:00pm, the National Park Service opened the last closed stretch of the scenic roadway south of Asheville from MP 399 at Bad Fork Valley Overlook to MP 405.5 near NC Route 151. This section of the Parkway had been closed since October 2009 because of a potential rock slide. Only one lane has opened, but the Parkway can now be travelled from end to end again, detour free. A traffic light will help control the flow of traffic.
During the construction, Parkway travelers had to take a 40 minute detour to get around the unsafe area. Both lanes of this area are scheduled to be open around the beginning of September, just in time for Labor Day weekend. This is especially helpful for travel during the fall leaf season which attracts hundreds of thousands of sight-seers each year. In the Blue Ridge region, peak fall color activity occurs in early October.
This year has been a difficult one for Parkway travelers. Following a Christmas Day ice storm in 2009, most of the roadway in North Carolina had been closed. Contractors and volunteers have worked diligently for half of 2010 to clean up debris, fallen trees, and potential rockslides. Clean-up will continue for months along the roadside, but maintenance officials only foresee occasional traffic delays.
Because of the 2009 ice storm, potential rockslides, and various construction projects preparing for the 75th Anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway, this is the first time that the Parkway has been open for uninterrupted travel in 18 months. It will be great for BRPA members and the Blue Ridge Parkway visitor to have all 469 miles open for travel again, especially in the 75th Anniversary year.
Tom Hardy
Thomas W. Hardy, Executive Director
Blue Ridge Parkway Association
www.blueridgeparkway.org
(828) 670-1924