Newfound Gap Road Reopened To 24 Hour Traffic

Newfound Gap Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park reopened this morning at 7:30 and will now remain open 24 hours a day. The park had been forced to close the road from 10pm to 7:30am due to commercial vehicles trying to use the road, which is prohibited. The road will now remain open at all times with the help of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Government and Sevier County. Those entities are assisting now in checkpoints at both ends of the road, in Cherokee, NC and in Gatlinburg. At those checkpoints, which will be manned 24 hours a day, all commercial vehicles will be turned around. National Park officials say they have turned away 173 commercial vehicles in a span of just five days. The National Park service says, while they understand the plight of commercial vehicle drivers in that major routes to North Carolina from Tennessee are closed, Newfound Gap Road is not safe for large, commercial vehicles. Newfound Gap Road, which is US 441, is a two-lane road with steep, continuous grades and tight curves. There are no truck lanes, runaway truck ramps or places for a large commercial vehicle to slow down and pull over, making it a dangerous road for commercial vehicles. NPS says that all commercial vehicles attempting to use the road will be stopped, turned around at checkpoints and may be subject to a federal misdemeanor violation notice and a fine.