Stop I-3 Before It Gets Started

Photo courtesy Philip Greenspun.

The proposed Interstate 3 would run from Knoxville to Augusta and Savannah, blasting through mountain wilderness, bypassing local economies, and potentially threatening new development in the region due to declining air quality. Learn more about this harmful project that would pass through our region.

The Stop I-3 Coalition continues to make progress in keeping a destructive interstate from being built through our magnificent Southern Appalachian mountains and piedmont, but we need your help to stop wasting time and money on further study of this highway.

Take action! Please send a letter or postcard to: J. Richard Capka Acting Director, Federal Highway Administration 400 Seventh Street SW Washington, DC 20590 Or send a faxed letter to 202-366-3244.

Please send a postcard or letter to the Federal Highway Administration today (see sidebar). Emphasize that the public needs to have opportunity for significant and substantive formal input into the current study for building I-3 (also known as the Third Infantry Division Highway) from Savannah to Knoxville by way of Augusta. (The phrase "Interstate 3" is not in the Transportation Act and neither is the exact route.) The main points to make are that this highway is unwanted, unneeded, and will be an environmental and fiscal disaster.

Here are some basic facts to use:

1. Currently, one may travel from Savannah to Knoxville by I-95, I-26, and I-40. The distance is 415 miles. That route is shorter than any of the possibilities that could be used for I-3 (Third Infantry Division Highway).
2. The county commissioners in six North Georgia and Western North Carolina counties have passed resolutions opposing this highway, and several other county commissions are considering resolutions.
3. The highway would traverse two National Forests and possibly the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The damage to the mountains, water and air quality, to endangered species, and the beauty of this area could never be reversed.
4. Based on University of Kentucky studies, the cost of interstates through the mountains is over $25 million per mile ($15 million for non-mountain interstates). The widening of U.S. 441 through Rabun County, Georgia (not an interstate) is costing over $10 million per mile. The cost of an interstate highway would be enormous. To build a non-interstate, limited access highway would not be much cheaper. To spend billions at a time when other financial priorities are stretching the federal budget is the last thing we need.

You might not need to use all of this information. The key factor is to pen a heart-felt postcard that covers your major points. Thanks!