What kind of road would you build if you were the federal government with presumed unlimited taxing power? Plans for Corridor K in Graham County are stirring the pot. Many citizens would rather see improvements to two existing roads, but the DOT says that would disrupt the Appalachian Trail too much. Instead, they are proposing a $383 million project. $197 million would go toward constructing a tunnel longer than half a mile. It is better for the trail, says the DOT, to burrow under it than to steamroll across it. Another chunk of funding would go toward a 1063-foot bridge. The DOT says this will preserve the water quality of the Stecoah River below. All told, the road work is expected to cost $3.46 million per mile.
The Smoky Mountain News printed some opinions about the proposed highway. Two clever comments were:
Our No. 1 export in Graham County is our young people. The young people that we are exporting are the top 10 or 15 percent of our graduating class, every year. Our school is performing miracles with our kids, but they don’t have the ability to come back to Graham County and make a decent living. This road is the first step and this road needs to be built, even if you have to bulldoze my house to start it.
– David Matheson, Principal, Robbinsville High School
If we make the generous assumption that North Carolina keeps getting about the same annual amount of federal money for this highway, the earliest it could have enough money to finish this project is in 2028. The bumper stickers that say ‘the money is there, build the road now’ would be more accurate if they said ‘a fifth of the money is there, build the road in 20 years.’ It will take over 75 years for the benefits to equal the cost. That’s a payback period no investor would ever touch, and this road may literally never pay for itself.
– Jim Grode, Executive Director, WaySouth
