If you've waited behind a bucket truck near Smoky Mountain High School this fall, you're seeing the part of the NC 107 project with the least to do with the road. What you see from the driver's seat is mostly crews moving power and fiber lines out of the way. Dozens of businesses had already moved off the strip before any of this began, and most of the work still ahead happens below the pavement and along the creek near Lowe's. Once you know that, the next few years of driving through Sylva get easier to read.
Why the Crews Are in the Road During the Day
The North Carolina Department of Transportation awarded the $103 million contract for Project R-5600 to Buchanan & Sons of Whittier in December 2025. The project had first been scheduled to start in 2023 and was pushed back by hurricanes, storms and COVID-19, WLOS reported in August.
Kenny McCourt, NCDOT's resident engineer for District 2 of Division 14, told WLOS that the current work is "overhead utility location, which, that's mostly your power, your comms, any of those things that are hanging on power poles." He also explained why this work is happening in daylight. In the same interview, he said most of the time crews are in the road during this first year will be for overhead utilities, "and that's just because Duke has to put in these lines during the daytime."
That's the work in front of Smoky Mountain High School, where WLOS reported that Duke Energy was cutting holes for new power poles. McCourt said the bank there is one of the planned wall sites and will be "shaved back" once the poles are in. He counted 22 retaining walls to be built at different points along the project.
So the daytime slowdowns this fall come from the power company's schedule. They don't show how the rest of the project will run.
The Real First Job Is Underground, by Lowe's
NCDOT's August 2026 construction update is the newest status report the Town of Sylva has posted. It puts most of the current activity between the Lowe's Hardware entrance and the Walmart Plaza entrance. Crews there are moving and upgrading water and sewer lines, and sanitary sewer work near Lowe's is getting ready for a creek crossing.
McCourt told WLOS this is where the project starts in earnest: "there's a big culvert extension that's gonna be going, starting at the Lowe's heading back up toward the intersection at Walmart." According to the August update, storm drainage work in that stretch comes next, along with a new box culvert. NCDOT plans to use precast concrete pieces "where practical" to shorten construction and limit the impact on traffic.
The Town of Sylva's project page explains why drainage gets so much attention. Failed box culverts along the corridor will be replaced with 7-foot culverts, and the plan also covers sinkhole repair and better erosion control. The August update adds that NCDOT and the contractor have been adjusting erosion control because of "the recent pattern of heavy rainfall."
For your errands, NCDOT says it is planning most of this work outside the active travel lanes where it can. Work near entrances and businesses is supposed to keep access open "to the greatest extent practical." You should still expect occasional delays at peak hours. The August update doesn't list specific lane-closure dates. As of mid-October, the Town hasn't posted a September or October bulletin.
Two Bridges, Two Different Jobs
The August update also mentions drainage work near the Coffee Shop and Innovation Brewing, set for whenever field conditions allow. That spot matters because of the bridge there. In August, McCourt described two bridge jobs:
- The bridge near Jackson Paper Manufacturing will be rebuilt.
- The bridge near the Coffee Shop and Innovation Brewing will be repaired.
The Town's project page describes both bridges as being replaced. The two accounts don't agree on the second bridge, and future NCDOT updates should settle the final scope.
How the Widening Is Sequenced
The project runs 2.6 miles, from Mill Street in downtown Sylva to Lovedale Road, plus part of Asheville Highway up to Skyland Drive, WRGC reported. Here's the order McCourt laid out once the utility lines are moved:
| Stage | What happens | Timing given |
|---|---|---|
| Utility year | Overhead power and fiber lines, then water and sewer lines, moved out of the way | Underway as of August 2026 |
| Right side | Widening from Mill Street to Lovedale Road along with a short piece of U.S. 23 Business where it meets 107; new drainage, sidewalks, and bike and pedestrian lanes | After the utility work |
| Left side | Work moves to the other side of the road, with one lane open each way and work done at night | Starting in 2028 |
| Center | Crews build down the middle, where the new islands go in | The third year |
| Finish | Project complete | 2031 |
If you walk this corridor, the change to plan for is a temporary sidewalk on the east side of the road. McCourt said it will carry pedestrians while the widening is underway. None of the sources so far confirm that it has been built.
Dates have shifted between briefings, so read them as plans. After an April 30 stakeholder meeting, WRGC reported that road widening should start in June 2027 on the west side of the corridor, from the Coffee Shop toward Burger King, with the work done at night. Both accounts point the same way: utilities and drainage first, widening after that, and night work once crews are in the travel lanes.
When it's done, the road will have four lanes plus a turn lane heading north onto Asheville Highway. It will be a "super street" with a median and U-turn lanes, which needs at least 110 feet of width. All the existing traffic lights stay. One new signal goes in at Hall Heights and Cherry Street at the Dairy Queen intersection. The Cope Creek Road and Walter Ashe Road intersection will be realigned for a safer right turn onto Cope Creek, and Skyland and Dillardtown Road will be realigned along Asheville Highway.
The Corridor Already Moved
That's why the current lane work is the smaller story. In April 2024, Smoky Mountain News reported that NCDOT had already relocated 38 businesses and two churches, with three more businesses still to go. The DOT called it the largest business relocation for any project in Division 14 in the last 30 years.
The Jackson County Economic Development Office and the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce set up a relocation grant of up to $1,000 per business to help with fees and permits. At the time of that report, 22 displaced businesses had applied, and all of them had relocated within Jackson County.
Speedy's Pizza & Pub shows how long some of those moves took. After its building on the 107 corridor was taken down for the project, a planned move to Dillsboro announced in 2023 didn't work out. In February 2024 it started serving a limited menu out of Rodgers Brothers in Cullowhee. The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting for its permanent home at 1070 Skyland Drive on Sept. 19, 2025, WLOS reported. Skyland Drive marks the north end of the project, so Speedy's ended up on a road the project will also realign.
Most of that reshuffling happened before Buchanan & Sons dug into any lane.
What the Wait Is For
Safety is the stated reason for all of this. Smoky Mountain News reported that a 2022 ranking of North Carolina cities under 10,000 people, based on all crashes reported from Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2022, put Sylva 10th out of 432. When the contract was awarded, WLOS spoke with Jill Rutt, co-owner of White Moon Coffee. She said she hoped the widening would cut down on crashes and that daytime life and travel along the corridor would stay fairly normal during construction.
NCDOT also plans to make the work easier to follow. McCourt said the department will fly a drone over the project eight times to build a visual that shows residents the planned construction laid over the actual areas. The Town's NC 107/R-5600 page is where NCDOT's project status updates get posted.
If you own a home along the 107 corridor or off Skyland Drive and want to talk through how this five-year schedule fits with plans to sell, stay put, or buy nearby, I'm glad to go over it with you plainly and without pressure. Matt Jackson is a phone call away. Let's connect.
