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Asheville Trump rally: What to know about possible airport, highway travel delays

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Asheville Trump rally: What to know about possible airport, highway travel delays

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Former President Donald Trump’s scheduled Aug. 14 appearance in Asheville will bring road closures, changes in parking availability and more to the city. Also expected are significant delays to highway travel.

Lt. Joshua Dowdle of the North Carolina Highway Patrol told the Asheville Citizen Times that, while efforts are being made to reduce delays, drivers should expect disruptions on I-26, I-240 and I-40 near the interchange.

“We have worked on these things since Friday, and we’re still working on it to minimize the impact as much as possible,” Dowdle said. “But, you know, with the volume of traffic that we have in our area, there’s no doubt that it’s going to cause delays. So, our suggestion to people would be just avoid the area as much as possible.”

More: Asheville Trump rally: Road closures, changes to parking, trash, bus routes: what to know

Highway closures August 14

While there are likely to be highway closures at some point during the day for Trump’s motorcade, Dowdle said that the Highway Patrol isn’t able to provide much information in advance.

“For our operational security of the motorcade, we’re not going to release any specific times that we’re going to have the road closed, or any specific roads that we’re going to have closed,” Dowdle said.

The general timeframe he was able to provide was a broad one.

“Asheville city is closing their roads at 12 o’clock, and so people need to plan from lunchtime till probably 6 or 7 o’clock tomorrow that there’s going to be traffic issues.”

Dowdle also suggested drivers be aware of the city’s planned road closures. A news release from the city said that roads closed as early as this morning, Aug. 13, included:

  • Haywood Street from Battery Park Ave. to O’Henry Ave.
  • Page Avenue from Haywood St. to Battle Square
  • Walnut Street from Haywood St. to Rankin Ave.
  • Hiawassee Street from Flint St. to N. Lexington Ave.
  • Flint Street from Haywood St. to Cherry St.
  • Vanderbilt Place

All roads are anticipated to reopen on Wednesday, Aug. 14 around 10 p.m.

More: Asheville police chief says ‘lessons learned’ from 2016 Trump rally, prepared for Aug. 14

Asheville Airport delays August 14

While highway delays are expected, Asheville Regional Airport Representative Tina Kinsey told the Citizen Times that the airport is not expecting any significant impact to operations, and no increased security measures will be in place.

“There’s no event at the airport, so we are not anticipating any major disruption to flight operations, and so what we’re doing is just advising customers to take extra time check the traffic report from their home to the airport if they’re traveling,” Kinsey said.

She advised that anyone flying out of AVL plan time to arrive at least two hours prior to their boarding time. The airport was not able to disclose the time that Trump’s flight is scheduled to arrive.

More: Donald Trump is rallying in Western North Carolina. But why Asheville?

Iris Seaton is the trending news reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at iseaton@citizentimes.com.

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