After a washout closed Newfound Gap Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a contractor has been selected to repair the road and will begin mobilizing equipment for construction this week, the National Park Service announced Aug. 25. Construction is expected to be completed on or before Sept. 30.

On Aug. 1, NPS staff responded to a landslide event between Mile Marker 12 and 13 on U.S. 441/Newfound Gap Road that knocked out roughly 125 feet and "undercut nearly the entire width of the southbound lane" on the Tennessee side of the park, the service said. That evening, 2 inches of rain fell in just two hours, causing Walker Camp Prong to swell and undermine the road.

U.S. 441 is the only road directly connecting the North Carolina and Tennessee sides of the park. The Great Smoki

See Full Page