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(Corridor 12)
Routing
The Cumberland Gap High Priority Corridor includes all of U.S. 25E and that portion of U.S. 58 approaching and entering the Cumberland Gap National Park.
U.S. 25E runs from Corbin, Kentucky, southeast to Morristown, Tennessee, via the Cumberland Gap area. At Corbin, it splits away from mainline Interstate 75 and U.S. 25 to avoid Knoxville and serve Middlesboro, Kentucky, and Tazewell, Tennessee.
U.S. 58, once famous for being the longest intra-state U.S. route, now enters Tennessee briefly before ending at U.S. 25E. The highway begins in the Cumberland Gap area, then heads east to serve important southern Virginia communities such as Bristol, Danville, Emporia, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach. The U.S. 58 Corridor Coalition hopes the entire road (over 400 miles long) will become four-lane, expressway standard with bypasses around all of the cities and towns.
The Cumberland Gap Tunnel
This corridor includes the new Cumberland Gap tunnel along U.S. 25E near the U.S. 58 junction. In this project, U.S. 25E and U.S. 58 were both rerouted for safety and environmental reasons. The tunnel has been under construction since around 1980 as part of a dual project: to modernize U.S. 58 from Virginia into Tennessee and to restore the Cumberland Gap trail back to the way it was when Dr. Thomas Walker and other settlers crossed the gap into Kentucky. Now that this new tunnel is open, the original U.S. 25E across the Gap is closed. This old road is probably being removed from the area.
As for the U.S. 25E and U.S. 58 junction and the Gap tunnel, H.B. Elkins writes that in April/May 1997, he drove through the tunnel. "It is a nice feat of engineering. The speed limit is 45 mph and vehicles are required to stay in their lane (no passing in the tunnel). My only complaint is that there's no sign marking the state line inside the tunnel. U.S. 58 has been extended further into Tennessee now. The "old-old" U.S. 25E-58 intersection which used to be in Virginia is drastically different. The old U.S. 58 alignment is now blocked off with a large dirt fill. Traffic is permitted up to the old intersection, then is diverted on Cumberland Avenue back into Tennessee to the town of Cumberland Gap. The old route of U.S. 25E north into Kentucky is blocked off with "road closed" signs and Jersey barriers, where the pavement will be removed or covered and the Gap eventually returned to some semblance of what it was back in the 1700s.
The "new-old" U.S. 25E-58 intersection in Tennessee, south of the "old-old" intersection in Virginia, has not been changed. Traffic heading west on U.S. 58 must stop and turn left onto the old alignment of U.S. 25E. I do not know if any changes to this intersection (which is now only 15 years old, at most) will be made to make US 58 a non-stop, through route. U.S. 58 has been extended westward along the old route of U.S. 25E to a new trumpet-style interchange with the new alignment of U.S. 25E just south of the tunnel entrance. The approximate distance is one mile.
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Class One cargo (explosives) is prohibited in the tunnel. At least one approach road (U.S. 119 in Harlan County, 40 miles to the northwest) has a sign informing motorists of this restriction. Unfortunately, the sign comes after the point where motorists should choose their alternate route detour (which would be U.S. 421 south from Harlan, Kentucky, to Pennington Gap, Virginia, then U.S. 58A and U.S. 58 west to Cumberland Gap).
This tunnel is one mile long and has twin tubes, with two lanes in each direction. However, the tunnel has electronic messages boards that remind motorists to "Stay in Lane," so lane changing is prohibited in the tunnel even though there are two lanes in the same direction. The speed limit in the tunnel is 45 mph. Since traffic in the national park was becoming overwhelming, the tunnel was built and completed recently to route traffic away from the Gap. Funding came from the National Park Service, the federal highway fund, and the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The cost of the tunnel construction was $280 million.
For more information, see the 10/13/96 article from the Lexington Herald-Leader on the Cumberland Gap Tunnel.
You may also want to check out Scott Kozel's Cumberland Gap Tunnel web page for more detail and pictures.
U.S. 25E Approaching the Tunnel
H.B. Elkins writes with respect to the remainder of U.S. 25E, that it is four-lane from Corbin, Kentucky, to south of Harrogate, Tenn., including the Cumberland Gap Tunnel. Tennessee portions from Harrogate to Interstate 81 at Morristown are not all four-lane yet, but some construction is ongoing. Even the sections that aren't four-lane are good highways, with truck lanes on hills and wide shoulders.
U.S. 25E is pretty much constructed to four-lane, high-speed rural arterial standards from Interstate 75 at Corbin, Kentucky, south to just past Harrogate, Tennessee. In the Kentucky towns of Corbin, Barbourville, Pineville, and Middlesboro and the Tennessee towns of Harrogate, Tazewell, and Morristown, there are quite a few traffic lights. It is likely some additional work on U.S. 25E will occur, including some town bypasses.
The U.S. 58 Corridor Coalition
According to Scott M. Kozel, the Route 58 Corridor program in Virginia is providing funds to bring the entire U.S. 58 corridor between the Cumberland Gap to Virginia Beach up to four-lane standards, with bypasses around towns. The target date for completion will be in 2002. For more information, check out the Virginia Department of Transportation website.
The one-mile section of U.S. 58 in Tennessee is four-lane, although there are some businesses along this route.
Page Updated August 18, 2005.
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