The hidden gem is Little Switzerland! Great lunch stop, "Million $$$ View" and a great place for a nice overnight weekend at the Inn. And if you want some excitement head down the famous "Diamondback".
Love Little Switzerland, have stayed a few times, I have rode the BRP from end to end a couple times. Diamondback is a great ride.
I live within 800 feet of the Parkway and it is my favorite place to ride. Even on short rides I still see something I hadn't seen before. I've also ridden it end to end but then I usually chose off season riding simply because there are hardly any vehicles on it. I've went for hours without seeing anyone in a cage or on a bike, and I love it! It kind of makes you feel like your that last person on Earth.
Interstate highways are federal also but the states are responsible to maintain them. Has anybody ever seen a federal highway crew on these roads? Lol.
States get their share of highway money every year but I think the states decide how to use it. The National Park Service comes into play here too but I don’t know how much responsibility they have for the road. And I think they don’t get a lot of support from Congress anyway.
Allot of states (I would venture most) only do smaller jobs, everything else is contracted out.
States (generally) do not have the equipment and crews to do the big jobs.
The states I have lived in contract it out, and recently allot of those contracts have went to out of state companies/crews.
Never seen a federal crew & I worked on quite a few of those jobs.
My father was a project engineer for the state of Montana most of those jobs were worked by contractors that had to bid on the jobs.
There are inspectors that are federal & state and the design and overseeing is done generally by state employees.
Montana used collage students (engineering mainly) as summer help to handle the extra inspecting needs.
As for federal funds (unless it's changed) they have restrictions.
The states have proposed jobs with costs, they have to come up with a percentage of the money.
The states then apply for federal money, if its available.
If the state gets the money the jobs are bid on by contractors and the winner gets the work.
02-14-2018, 04:39 AM
