The Stop I-3 Coalition continues to make progress in keeping an interstate from being built through our magnificent Southern Appalachian Mountains and the Piedmont, but we need your help to affect further study of this ruinous highway. We are asking each of you on February 14 to send a postcard to J. Richard Capka, Acting Director Federal Highway Administration 400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, DC 20590.
If you can not send a postcard that day, then please send a faxed letter to 202-366-3244 on February 16.
Your messages should emphasize that the public needs to have opportunity for significant and substantive formal input into the current study for building I-3 (Third Infantry Division Highway) from Savannah, Georgia, to Knoxville, Tennessee by way of Augusta, Georgia. (The phrase “Interstate 3” is not in the Transportation Act and neither is the proposed route.) The main points to make are that this highway is unwanted, unneeded and will be an environmental and fiscal disaster.
Basic facts that can be used are
1. Currently, one may travel from Savannah to Knoxville by I-95, I-26, and I-40. The distance is 415 miles. This route is shorter than any of the possibilities that could be used for I-3 (Third Infantry Division Highway).
2. The county commissioners in four North Georgia 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 must not be considered.
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.
Additionally, the Coalition needs funds to continue our efforts. Please visit www.stopi-3.org and make a tax-deductible contribution to our cause. Also, involve anyone interested in protecting our mountains and piedmont from this highway.