Updated: 11/23/2009 5:49:15 PM
By Jon Ostendorff , Asheville Citizen-Times
The town's gas station went dry and traffic backed up for a mile at times in the days after Hot Springs, N.C. became a pit stop for motorists avoiding the official Interstate 40 rock slide detour.
Transportation officials say they can't know for sure whether Hot Springs or any other Western North Carolina areas will see similar trouble as Thanksgiving holiday travelers try to get around the Pigeon River Gorge slide.
N.C. Highway Patrol troopers in the annual Operation Slowdown will focus efforts on the detour routes of interstates 240 and 26, which take travelers through Asheville and toward Tennessee on the way to Interstate 81 south.
The special enforcement, which focuses on speeding and aggressive driving, started Thursday.
"(Traffic) will be heavier than normal just because of people who are not used to coming into Asheville from Knoxville that way," Trooper Gene Williamson said.
About 33 million people nationwide will travel by car 50 miles or more away from home during this year's holiday weekend compared to 32.5 million last year, according to AAA.
How bad will it be?
About 20,000 cars a day had used I-40 in the gorge before the Oct. 25 slide, a number that could have doubled the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation.
One serious accident on I-26 detour route could mean a lengthy wait with the additional traffic.
Transportation officials expect workers will need another four months to clear boulders from the slide just east of the Tennessee line.
Problems in the Pigeon River Gorge in past years have caused serious delays.
Motorists trapped in a 15-mile-long wait in 2003 cursed at Highway Patrol troopers. Construction in the gorge that had reduced the interstate to just two lanes caused the bottleneck.
A year later, construction to clean up a mudslide after Hurricane Ivan again reduced the highway to two lanes and forced a six-mile backup.
This year, though, the traffic will already be using the detour around the gorge and that, according to troopers, will mean an easier time for most motorists.
The highway department says local residents should avoid the detour route when possible.
"We also ask through-traffic motorists to be patient and allow extra time to travel the detour route," said Jerry Higgins, a highway department spokesman. "In addition, through-travelers may want to consult a map and, based on their destination, choose other routes."
Alternate routes
The N.C. Department of Transportation says the detour route using I-81 is still the best choice for most travelers. It adds about 50 miles to the trip between Asheville and Knoxville.
But troopers are expecting an increase on some of the region's smaller westerly routes.
One of those is US 25-70 from Asheville to Hot Springs and onto I-40 in Newport, Tenn.
Traffic now isn't what it was in the days after the rock slide, said Lila Nikla, director of the Madison County Visitors Center. She said most people are sticking to the posted detour.
The Thanksgiving rush could mean an uptick, she said.
Dan Gallagher, one of the owners of Bluff Mountain Outfitters in Hot Springs, said he's seen cars backed up for a mile while the train was passing through.
"A few people stopped and checked out the town, but most are just zipping through," he said.
Nikla said the visitor's center has maps to tell travelers about the detour.
"They are not happy about it," she said of the reaction from most folks.
The drive from Asheville to Knoxville through Hot Springs takes about an hour and 20 minutes. The trip from Asheville to Knoxville on the detour is only about 10 minutes longer.
The other alternate route to Knoxville is U.S. 441 through Cherokee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park often closes the highway when it snows.
For travelers in Waynesville and places farther west, this is probably the best bet. From Asheville, it will add nearly 30 minutes to the trip.
Trick your GPS
The rock slide detour routes have been trouble for people who use global positioning systems. The units typically aren't updated with detour routes after natural disasters.
Some motorists relying on GPS have ended up at the rock slide site on I-40 despite signs as far away as Greensboro warning of the detour.
Franklin, N.C. resident Benny Sokoloskis found out about the GPS problem the week of another rock slide that has shut down U.S. 64 near Ducktown, Tenn.
He was traveling from Asheville to Nashville.
He didn't like the time it would take to follow the Tennessee highway department's detour using Tennessee Highway 68 to Sweetwater, and then to Interstate 75. And his GPS would only find the "fastest" way using U.S. 64.
So he used Google Earth to find what looked like a better route and plugged the towns into his GPS as stops.
Sokoloskis ended up heading south from Franklin to Blue Ridge, Ga., where picked up U.S. 76 to Dalton, Ga., and then I-75. He said it added about 30 minutes to an hour to his trip compared with several hours he was expecting on the official detour route.
"A computer is only as smart as the person who programs it," Sokoloskis said.
