Published: May 18, 2009 07:33 pm      

Road repairs raise concerns on Smith Mountain

Several members of the Smith Mountain community were upset last Thursday after seeing a Cumberland County Highway Department worker performing shoulder repair work on Smith Mountain Rd.

It gave residents the impression the road was being widened for truck traffic for a pending decision about reclaiming the Crossville Coal Mine with fly ash from the TVA spill in Kingston.

"We were doing some shoulder repair work. It was nothing but regular maintenance in a few places where the rain had washed it out," Cumberland County Highway Superintendent Wendell Houston said. "We absolutely were not widening the road."

Smith Mountain Solutions, LLC recently submitted a proposal for a subtitle D landfill "beneficial re-use" project to the Cumberland County Commission.

If approved by the Cumberland County Commission and TVA, Wright Brothers Construction said it will reinforce, widen and repair Smith Mountain Rd. to accommodate the increased truck traffic.

The proposed project is designed to place coal combustion products (fly ash) as fill for the purpose of reclamation of approximately 300 acres of a surface coal mining operation at 6728 Smith Mountain Rd., Crab Orchard.

Wright Brothers Construction owners also own Smith Mountain Solutions. Wright Brothers Construction had a crew out Thursday doing survey work, also giving the appearance to residents that road widening was being performed.

The possible project would have hundreds of trucks traveling the road on a daly basis for a long time and has many residents concerned.

Several residents called the Chronicle and sent emails last Thursday.

"It looks like a done deal to me," one Smith Mountain resident wrote.

Another resident, Flo Hopkins took pictures of the work and workers and said the very next day all the work stopped after she had made calls to the county mayor.

Ninth District Commissioner Carmin Lynch said the timing on the repair work was not very good.

"I can't blame any one of them wondering about it. I can see how it would raise a red flag, but we haven't made any decisions yet. We are following the Jackson Law and will hold public hearings before we make any decisions," Lynch said.

Houston said they were laying shoulder stone on the road in areas that had been washed out from all the recent rains over the past couple of months.

"They were out there for the day and did the repair work on the shoulder and that was all," Houston said.

Steve Wright of Wright Brothers Construction was not available as of press time.

A public hearing over the fly ash project will be June 2, 2009, at The Palace Theatre, 72 South Main St. at 6:30 p.m.

The proposed project will be reviewed by the Cumberland County Commission during its next monthly meeting June 15.

The meeting will be at the Cumberland County Courthouse in the large courtroom at 7 p.m. At the June 15 meeting, the commission may review the comments, take additional comments, hear the proposal and then vote on whether or not to approve the proposal.

Gary Nelson can be reached at gnelson@crossville-chronicle.com.