Blairsville Highway under construction

Bellview – Work has started in earnest on the U.S. 19/129 – Blairsville Highway – improvement project that won’t add driving lanes to the two-lane highway, but will modernize it.

The 3.8-mile, $55 million highway project is one of the largest of several N.C. Department of Transportation projects under way, about to start or nearing completion in Cherokee County. Delays are already present.

The project will add 4-foot-wide shoulders, improve intersections, add left-turn lanes at intersections, fix sharp curves, and smooth out low and high sections of roadway. Road crews are finishing up preparation work and tree clearing, with construction scheduled to begin in the spring.

DOT spokesman David Uchiyama said Monday the project, which will resurface the entire stretch of highway from Ranger to the Georgia state line, is on schedule. While it won’t add driving lanes, it will add left-turn lanes at several intersections.

The project will also improve “horizontal and vertical curvature,” Uchiyama said. Put another way, it will soften sharp curves, high spots and low spots.

For example, the project will create a four-way intersection at Lance Road, Price Weaver Road and Blairsville Highway. In so doing, it will raise the elevation at that intersection by 12 feet.

It will also reconfigure the four-way intersection of Hedden Road, Taylor Hensen Road and Blairsville Highway, moving the intersection a quarter mile south and lowering its elevation by 14 feet.

Other planned changes include:

• Reconfigure Moccasin Creek Road and Jim Cordell Road so they meet at the same intersection.
• Reconfigure an intersection with Martins Creek Road and Lance Road at Blairsville Highway.

The project was among a long list that were delayed by COVID-19-related funding issues. Construction for this project was changed from 2021 to 2023.

There are 108 parcels affected by this project. A meeting of affected property owners was held in November 2018.

Other highway updates

Other local projects include:

• Old Ranger Road connector: A new street that connects U.S. 64 West with Old Ranger Road. This was part of a reconfiguration that would create a four-way intersection meeting at a traffic circle. The traffic circle has been put on pause pending the collection of traffic data, but the connector road should be completed by summer.
• U.S. 64 West: This project is essentially complete, with finishing touches under way.
• Downtown repaving and traffic circle: The DOT has completed resurfacing on Hill Street and Valley River Avenue. The Town of Murphy is replacing old water lines downtown, after which the DOT will resurface Valley River Avenue, Peachtree Street, Tennessee Street and Hiwassee Street, plus  reconfigure the intersection of those streets into a traffic circle, otherwise known as a roundabout. Work is expected to be completed this year.