Blue Ridge Parkway Announces Multiple Temporary Closures for Routine Maintenance

National Park Service maintenance personnel are conducting boom axe operations in multiple locations along the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway between now and the end of the year. Visitors should anticipate intermittent and temporary closures in active work zones as indicated. Both lanes of the Parkway will be closed to all activity (cars, bicycles, and hikers) in active work zones to ensure the safety of the maintenance workers as well as Parkway visitors.

Closure areas are as follows:

Milepost (from North to South) / Vicinity of (Dates)

Milepost 66 - 85  /  US 501 - VA Route 43 (Dec. 3 - 7)
Milepost 91 - 106  /  VA Route 43 - VA Route 460 (Nov. 26 - 29)
Milepost 112 - 120  /  VA Route 24 - US Route 220 (Dec. 3 - 21)
Milepost 120 - 136  /  Bent Mountain Area (Nov. 12 - 30)
Milepost 393 - 407  /  French Broad River to Buck Springs Tunnel (Nov. 15 - 28)

Affected sections close at approximately 8:00 a.m. each weekday and re-open daily by 4:30 p.m. EST in work zone areas. The road will be open on the weekend. Those who normally commute on the Parkway during the week may want to find alternate routes.

Annually, Blue Ridge Parkway maintenance and resource management staff conduct maintenance activities that help control vegetation growth along the Parkway. To help insure safe sight distances and a clear right-of-way, this work requires using a large tractor with a cutting head on a long arm, or boom. This tractor must remain in the travel lanes during operation to properly perform its work while cutting the banks and road shoulders.

Specific information regarding daily closures, related to this project or for any other reason, is available on the Parkway’s Real Time Road Map.



Jeff
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