In addition to all the other damage caused by Tropical Storm Helene, here in Haw Creek it caused a landslide between the Blue Ridge Parkway and Maple Drive along the western perimeter of Masters Park. Extending over several hundred feet, the slide has forced a rerouting of the popular Masters Park trail. Repair work is about to begin, as explained in this message from Blue Ridge Parkway Superintendent, Tracy Swartout.
"I wanted to reach out to all of you to let you know about an exciting update on the Parkway, to repair roadway damage near your homes. Many of you connected with one or more of our incident management team in October and November as we were in initial storm response phase, and assessing Parkway motor road damage over roughly a 200-mile stretch in North Carolina. I'm pleased to share that we are now moving into the construction phase with several landslides in the Asheville corridor, including the slide just south of Haw Creek overlook, near your homes.
Restoration work on this slide is set to begin next week, and you will begin to be aware that staging and prep work is beginning. We expect the work to be completed on this one specific repair location by this summer, but there is much additional work remaining in the corridor between the Folk Art Center and Craggy Gardens before the road will be reopened to the public in that stretch of the Parkway lands.
Construction operations starting 1/27/25 are scheduled to occur during daylight hours, Monday through Friday. Due to a compressed timeline, construction is possible on weekends and national holidays with NPS approval. Construction traffic will primarily be accessing the Parkway at Tunnel Road.
We have connected with the City of Asheville Parks and Rec folks to plan for temporary closure of trail access onto and across the Parkway in the construction zone, and placement of signage at the trailhead kiosk and on the trail itself to warn all hikers. Timeline on that is TBD. While closure of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in this section, and all Parkway lands in this area has been in place for several months to protect public safety, closure of the trail access from Master's Park onto the Parkway now will be critical for the safety of everyone involved until the project is complete. Please respect this closure for your safety, and the safety of contractors on-site. You may also receive an update from the City of Asheville on this topic. NPS staff are available next week by phone to answer any questions you may have.
In short, all of the landslide repair and construction will occur from the Parkway side, and you shouldn't have any unexpected impacts from the work, but we ask you to reach out to the Parkway’s Public Information Officer, Leesa Brandon, at leesa_brandon@nps.gov if you have any questions or concerns during construction."
