Choose your I-40 detour wisely

Russell Barrett reports that there's more than one way to get around the rock slide that closed Interstate 40 a month ago just east of the Tennessee border. (See today's story, with a map of NCDOT's recommended detour.)

How you get there depends on where you ask for directions. Barrett found that some online mapping services will lead you into trouble, and some give good guidance.

Here's what he found when he consulted four of them. (I've added links to the specific maps and directions.)

After reading of the continued problems with I-40 in the mountains this morning, I checked four online mapping programs to see if they were aware of the situation. I used Lake Junaluska as the starting point and Knoxville TN as the finish.

The results: they batted .500.

Yahoo and Google maps both routed around I-40. Yahoo preferred US 441, Google liked I-26.

In the Not Exactly Lewis & Clark Department, Mapquest and Bing (Microsoft) both thought you could zip along I-40 without a care.

The NCDOT detour route sticks with interstate highways, a good idea in the mountains -- especially for truckers and holiday travelers. Here are NCDOT info and a nice detour map.