12/13/06, Asheville Citizen-Times
Shuler tapped for highway committee
WASHINGTON — Representative-elect Heath Shuler will serve on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, a panel best known for producing multiyear and multibillion-dollar transportation bills. Shuler was among the 12 people whom the Democratic Steering Committee, which handles committee assignments, appointed to the panel on Tuesday. Ten of the 12 are incoming freshman. Shuler spokesman Andrew Whalen said his boss wanted a seat on the transportation panel because it would give him a chance to work on road and highway needs in the district as well as some energy issues such as fuel consumption and fuel efficiency issues. Read more...

12/2/06, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Transportation leaders, lobbyists meet in secret
Greensboro -- Key state transportation leaders attended a closed-door meeting Friday at the rustic-posh Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynolds Plantation to discuss changing Georgia's tax structure. The meeting at the luxury resort was organized by Georgians for Better Transportation, a lobbying group, as part of its effort to persuade the state to raise more tax money for transportation projects. Attendees included the state Department of Transportation board's chairman. Read more...

11/20/06, Metro Pulse (Knoxville)
North Shore Road, I-3 are “Nowhere”
Rep. Shuler and the new Congress should erect the signs
"The best thing about Heath Shuler’s election to Congress is not that he was a cover-boy quarterback at UT, and certainly not that he lines up with the Blue Dog Democrats and their social conservatism. The best thing about Shuler’s whipping Charlie Taylor, that bumbling, corrupt eight-term congressman in North Carolina’s 11th District is that we won’t have the North Shore Road to combat any more." Read more...

11/14/06, Knoxville News
Comments heard on Complex 2030
Most object to plans to build more nuclear weapons at Y-12
"The government's plans for the nuclear weapons complex of the future - known as Complex 2030 - could expand work at the Y-12 warhead facility, including a possible role with plutonium." Read more...

11/12/06, Gainesville Times
Eco-friendly Congress?
Many environmental leaders hoping for major policy changes
"One federal project that may not see the light of day now is Interstate-3, a proposed highway that would stretch from Savannah to Knoxville, cutting through the Northeast Georgia mountains. I-3's biggest proponent in Congress is Rep. Charlie Norwood, an Augusta Republican who was re-elected Tuesday. But with Democrats now having greater influence over appropriations, the odds of getting funding for the enormously expensive I-3 project appear slim. "I certainly don't think I-3 is going to happen now," said Neill Herring, lobbyist for the Sierra Club in Georgia." Read more....

11/4/06, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta highway projects pile up
Slow times: High costs, political priorities in the fast-growing area keep much key roadwork from even starting, and some plans have had to be junked.
"When it comes to transportation projects, metro Atlanta appears to be putting on the brakes. Fewer than half of the metro region's transportation project phases that were supposed to get under way this year actually did, according to "Breaking Ground," a report released Friday by the Atlanta Regional Commission. It's the lowest percentage for any year since ARC started counting in 2003." Read more...

11/4/06, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nucleus for nuclear
Atlanta, Southeast at center of industry revival
"Atlanta is looking more and more like a nuclear hub. In addition to being home to nuclear-minded Southern Co. and the nuclear industry's standards board, Atlanta last month became the address for the new federal Construction Inspection Office, where nuclear regulators will watch over the construction of new reactors nationwide." Read more...

10/11/06, Cherokee Sentinel
Interstate 3: Not dead yet
"It has been just over a year since the public information forum at Tri- County Community College alerted our local citizens to the proposal to build an interstate highway through the mountains of Western North Carolina which was advanced in the highway bill signed into law on August 10, 2005." Read more...

10/06, Southern Environmental Law Center
Interstates 3 and 14: SELC joins with citizens in opposing massive interstate projects
"A proposal to cut a new interstate across the South has sparked a multi-state, grassroots effort to stop the project before it gets started. Proposed Interstate 3 would run approximately 400 miles from Knoxville to Savannah, tearing through wetlands, fields and forests and threatening the economic vitality of rural communities along the way." Read more...

9/25/06, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Road budgets battered by rapidly rising costs
"The conversation with state transportation planners last year is seared in Jack Conway's brain. Months before, rising prices had bumped the cost to widen McGinnis Ferry Road in Forsyth and Fulton counties from just over $20 million to about $35 million, Conway says. It was unprecedented, and it was going to hurt. And now here they were again, sitting in a government conference room, everyone vaguely aware of what was coming, no one ready for the number." Read more...

9/21/06
Towns County Poll: 93.2% Oppose I-3 There
On September 21, 2006, a vote was requested by Towns County Commissioner Bill Kendall and conducted by the TC Board of Elections. This poll was well-advertised and formally conducted. A total of 536 voters participated overall, even though the poll was open for only 2.5 hours. The question: "Should I-3 be constructed through Towns County?" was included among other questions on the ballot. On the question of I-3, 93.2% voted against construction through Towns Co. with 36 people voting "yes" and 497 people voting "no." These results are certified by the Towns County Board of Elections, Jonni Marie Shook, Chairwoman.

9/19/06, BBC News
French row over vineyard motorway
"Baron Geoffroy de Luze usually loves this time of year, when the soft rains fall on the grapes in Margaux just before the harvest. He can look out over his vineyards in the hope of another vintage year - but not this year. The baron is filled with foreboding because the French authorities are threatening to build a motorway right next to his vines." Read more...

7/06, Sierra Club Newsletter
Proposed Interstate Would Ravage Southern Appalachians

"The Dragon’s Tail. For 30 miles, US Hwy 129 snakes around the western end of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park like a roller coaster. Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest stands a mere stone’s throw to the south. It’s about the worst place imaginable to put an interstate highway, but that’s what Georgia’s Representative Charles Norwood and Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson have proposed. Dubbed I-3, it would extend from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Savannah, Georgia." Read more...

6/29/06, Times-Courier, Gilmer County
North Georgia Sierra Club discusses Interstate 3

"The North Georgia Sierra Club members met Thursday, June 22, in the United Community Bank conference room to discuss threatened hemlock trees and the proposed route for Interstate 3. Club chairperson Larry Winslette spoke of the proposed route for the interstate from Savannah to Knoxville. Winslette described the prospect of the interstate as having “potential devastating...environmental impacts,” especially on water sources. He pointed out that water coming out of the Appalachian Mountains serves virtually the entire southeast. A highway, which would inevitably cross streams and rivers, would almost certainly cause pollution through silt runoff or chemicals from vehicles on the road." Read more...

6/06, Road & Track Magazine
The Tail of the Dragon

America's most addictive roads? Read more...

6/28/06, Smoky Mountain News
Momentum keeps building for Stop I-3 coalition

"The Stop I-3 Coalition — the grassroots organization that aims to prevent construction of a proposed interstate running from Savannah to Knoxville — has received a boost to its efforts as the Southwestern Regional Planning Commission has come out against the proposed interstate’s construction. “Construction of an interstate highway through the rugged terrain of southwestern North Carolina would have a devastating environmental, economic, cultural and aesthetic impact on these mountains, including the Nantahala National Forest and Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” according to the resolution issued by the Southwestern Commission." Read more...

6/12/06 - Knoxville News Sentinel
Stopping I-3 tops to-do list
"Harvey Broome Group wants to halt highway that's environmentally damaging.
It will be their project for the year, and their achievement will be marked by awareness. The Harvey Broome Group of Knoxville held an informational meeting Tuesday night about the possible effects of the proposed Interstate 3 project, which would cross several Southeastern states including Tennessee. The local group, part of the national Sierra Club, is conducting petition drives opposing the project." Read more...

6/12/06 - Knoxville News Sentinel
Group resists proposed interstate
"A proposed new interstate between Savannah, Ga., and Knoxville could have serious implications for the mountains of East Tennessee, a Knoxville environmental group said. The Harvey Broome Group of the Sierra Club has launched a campaign to raise awareness of Interstate 3, a 450-mile highway corridor that would pass north of Atlanta and through the mountains of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee before connecting to Interstate 75 in Knox County. A $1.32 million feasibility study is under way to examine the economic benefits and environmental risks of the project." Read more...

4/20/06 - The Times (Gainesville, GA)
Groups opposing I-3 in mountains seek our support
"Former Gov. Roy Barnes, speaking to Gainesville Rotarians earlier this month, said the proposed Interstate 3 never would be built through the Northeast Georgia mountains.
However, government efforts to construct the interstate highway from Savannah to Knoxville are moving forward." Read more...

4/4/06 - AccessNorthGa.com
Former Gov. Barnes: No I-3
"GAINESVILLE - Former governor Roy Barnes told a Rotarian audience in Gainesville Monday that Interstate 3 across the Georgia mountains will never be built. Barnes said the political heat and opposition to the proposed route is too great." Read more...

3/8/06 - Cherokee Sentinel
I-3 would devastate mountains
"County commissioners approve resolution opposing federal highway
A federal interstate highway constructed through our mountains would have a "devastating environmental and economic" impact on our mountains, the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners proclaimed in opposition to the proposed I-3." Read more...

2/23/06 - The Dahlonega Nugget
Lumpkin County joins others opposed to I-3
"Lumpkin County joined the ranks of other north Georgia counties in objecting to the construction of any proposed interstate highway in the region last week." Read more...

2/22/06 - Cherokee Sentinel
Commissioners oppose I-3

"The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners went on record Monday as opposing construction of I-3. . . . “We have the most beautiful valley in the United States,” Commissioner Barbara Vicknair said. 'I don’t want to see an interstate go through it.'" Read more...

2/8/06 - Smoky Mountain News
Macon takes official stand against I-3

"The Stop I-3 Coalition received a major boost in its efforts to prevent construction of a new highway that would connect Savannah, Ga., to Knoxville, Tenn., by way of Western North Carolina when Macon County Commissioners on Monday night (Feb. 6) became the first WNC government to pass a resolution against the highway." Read more...

2/8/06 - The Herald Sun
Western N.C. county governments oppose I-3
"FRANKLIN, N.C. -- Two western North Carolina county governments are formally opposing an interstate from Knoxville, Tenn., to Savannah, Ga., while two others say they agree with that position." Read more...

1/18/06 - Towns County Sentinel
Stop I-3 Forum in Dahlonega

"A good turnout of 140 people attended the Stop I-3 forum held in Dahlonega on Monday, January 23." Read more...

1/18/06 - Flagpole Magazine (Athens, GA)
Interstate Plans
More Superhighways?

"Residents of Middle and East Georgia are anxiously awaiting the results of two studies on proposed Georgia interstates. Interstate 3, a north/south route that would connect Savannah to Knoxville, TN via Augusta, and its east/west counterpart Interstate 14, between Augusta and Natchez, MS, gained Congressional approval in last year’s massive House Resolution 3, the “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users” (SAFETEA-LU). Now the proposals are back in Washington before the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), a division of the Department of Transportation, for reports on the price tag and the steps needed to see the highways through to completion." Read more... [Scroll down to second article on Flagpole page]

1/17/06 - The Franklin Press
Stop I-3 Coalition gets support from state Senator John Snow

"North Carolina Senator John Snow (D-Murphy) was a guest speaker at a Stop I-3 Coalition rally hosted by the League of Women Voters at the Tartan Hall Thursday. It was a full house with approximately 80 people attending. Another expected speaker, N.C. Representative Roger West (R-Marble), could not attend due to work-related conflicts. Snow said he is against the idea of I-3 route coming into our area, citing concerns about construction damaging the pristine landscape when the interstate isn't needed or wanted." Read more...

1/2/06 - The Times (Gainesville, GA)
Development sparked protests in 2005

"In 2005, two very different protest movements each drew attention to the impact of growth on Northeast Georgia's mountains. Environmentalists were alarmed last summer when U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-Augusta) sought funding for a proposed Interstate 3, which would run from Savannah to Knoxville, crossing through the Southern Appalachians. Groups in Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas quickly formed the Stop I-3 Coalition to oppose the road." Read more...

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