Work Begins on Foothills Parkway’s ‘Missing Link’

A new 16-mile section of the Foothills Parkway will likely open in mid-2018 following a groundbreaking in April. 

The Foothills Parkway, planned as a 72-mile corridor administered by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is the only one of seven parkways Congress authorized in 1944 that hasn’t been finished, with only 22.5 miles open to the public. Completion of this long-unfinished segment connecting Walland and Wears Valley, Tennessee, would bring that number to 33 miles. 

Funding comes from a $10 million federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery VIII grant and a $15 million match from the State of Tennessee Governor’s Office.