Mountain Press - New Dollywood road project nears completion

Derek Hodges/The Mountain Press
PIGEON FORGE — Work is nearing completion on a project to make getting into or by Dollywood from McCarter Hollow Road easier and that means area drivers will soon have some new patterns to learn.According to Dollywood spokesman Pete Owens, the bulk of the work will be completed by the time Dollywood opens March 27. However, an effort to remake the parking area for Dollywood's Splash Country that will eventually lead to a new traffic light on Veterans Boulevard will likely continue until that park opens in May, Owens said.

The work includes widening McCarter Hollow Road and extending the turn lanes into Dollywood. Park officials have said that will make traffic flow better through the area and in the turn lanes on Veterans Boulevard. The Dollywood Company is splitting the bill for that work, expected to top out somewhere between $7 million and $8 million, with the city of Pigeon Forge.



Beyond adding lanes, workers with Charles Blalock & Sons - the lead contractor for the project - are also putting the finishing touches on a new bridge on McCarter Hollow Road, which has been detoured twice as the work has continued and now takes drivers over a temporary roadway through Dollywood's lot. That overpass will allow for the construction of a road between the parking areas for the two parks, which sit on opposite sides of McCarter Hollow, and will mean all traffic for both attractions will be funneled through the one main traffic entrance.



To make that change, which Owens said will make it easier and safer for drivers going to or by the parks, a considerable amount of work is being done on the parking lots. The current entrance to the Splash Country lot will soon be closed, with a new driveway between the two completed.



New parking will be added in both areas and a new exit from Splash Country directly onto Veterans Boulevard will be constructed. That work will likely last through April and will add a traffic light on Veterans, Owens said.



"People coming through that area will have to pay attention because there will be a new traffic pattern through that area soon," he said.



The project has been years in the planning, with the park's ability to recently acquire two properties that abutted the Dollywood parking lots helping to grow the scope of the work. City officials agreed late last year to finance no more than half the total cost of the project, with a cap of $4 million on the portion paid from public coffers.

(SOURCE: Mountain Press)