NEW BRIDGE over Route 33
We've heard talk for years about replacing the old green Veteran's Bridge connecting Maynardville with Sharps Chapel across Norris Lake, but each time it was suggested for the state budget, there was always something that the governor thought was more urgently needed. With the economic stimulus package available for TN, the replacement of the bridge is back in the budget and construction is supposed to start sometime in 2010. Not only will the bridge be replaced, but Route 33 will be straightened. 
The present approach to the bridge (whether you are going north or south on Route 33 matters not) has a curve going onto the bridge and a curve coming off of the bridge.
This challenge becomes really dangerous when a driver is going too fast or the roads are wet and slick. There have been many wrecks on the bridge over the years. And since this is the only way to cross Norris Lake, closing the bridge for several hours becomes more than just an inconvenience. The last time this happened, I was behind 2 school buses that were trying to get students back home in Sharps Chapel. They waited the 5 hours for the bridge to reopen with traffic and trucks backing up behind them. I scooted around through Grainger County to Claiborne County on back roads into Tazewell and then south to Sharps Chapel and managed to do that in only 3 hours. 