Road construction seems to be a hobby here in East Tennessee. From local roads to national parks no spot is immune to the upgrades. We ran into the 2011 road construction on the Cherohala Skyway not long after we left the Indian Boundary Campground. It was roughly in the middle of the drive and it appeared to be coming from the direction of North Carolina to Tennessee.
When the 2011 road construction work should go a long way in making the skyway an even better experience to drive. In addition to working on a rock slide area on the Cherohala Skyway new guard rails are being installed, paving is being done and other upgrades are being made.
The road construction on the Cherohala Skyway is being concentrated on Mondays and Thursdays through August. We went through on a Thursday and our stopped time was about 20 minutes. The construction crewman did not allow us out of our vehicle while we were waiting. However, we were stopped next to an overlook and were welcome to pull into that and walk around. It afforded a good opportunity to take some great landscape photos.
A pilot car is used while the 2011 road construction is happening on the Cherohala Skyway. The highway patrol officer pulled into the overlook and waited while everyone lined up to follow him. Pilot cars make it easier to drive through areas like this.
They aren't always with the highway patrol. Sometimes pilot cars are large trucks or other vehicles that are specially equipped with high visibility signage and extra lights. The cruiser safely led us through the work zone and onto the other side. Then he turned around and got ready to do it again.
The wait and drive time through the road construction took about 45 minutes. After that, we were on our way again. The next stop on our Etowah to Etowah in six hours road trip was just across the North Carolina state line in Robbinsville.
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