Take Action Today
How: Please join our partner organizations, Stop I-3 Coalition (now renamed WaysSouth) and the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club at a public meeting scheduled to discuss the latest attempt to pursue a destructive, high-speed roadway from Savannah to Knoxville.
When: 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, May 25
Where: United Community Bank, Morrison Moore Parkway, Dahlonega, Georgia
Background: Many residents of Southern Appalachia might have believed that the issue of a new high-speed roadway from Savannah to Knoxville was dead. Not so. A federal highway construction consultant quietly has been studying the matter under a federal Congressional directive and is poised to issue a study of various options for such a road, including roadways built to interstate standards.
The possible route currently preferred by the consultants would create something of a new "Northern Arc" through Dahlonega and from there through the Ellijay area before stretching to Knoxville (but largely avoid direct contact with the confines of the Chattahoochee National Forest.) Alternative routes deemed less feasible included the addition of a major highway that would follow the U.S. 441 corridor through Rabun County, Georgia and Macon County, North Carolina.
"All of the routes proposed by the consultants' study create major problems in Southern Appalachia," said Larry Winslett, Conservation Chair for the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club. "We encourage all citizens in north Georgia and nearby Western North Carolina to attend this public gathering to learn more and participate in the discussion." This stand is heartily endorsed by Georgia ForestWatch and we encourage all our members and friends to attend the public meeting.
The cost alone is astronomical -- perhaps as much as $4.8265 billion to build it to interstate standards. But other reasons abound to oppose this scheme, not the least of which is that it would further pressure already heavily pressured national forests in north Georgia, Western North Carolina and East Tennessee, as well as the conservation jewel of the Southeast, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park -- and the countless Wilderness and wild areas contained therein.
 |
|
Forest damage during I-26 construction
|
We must help pack the house! Do not let the vastly powerful highway construction lobby dictate transportation terms in Southern Appalachia, or try to move metro Atlanta's gridlock to the mountains.
For more information about WaysSouth and the highway study,
Go Here: http://www.wayssouth.org/campaigns/stop-i-3/resources/
Thanks for your commitment to protecting the communities and forest lands of North Georgia!
