The tunneling project is a joint venture involving the National Security Agency, CIA, FBI, MiB, Homeland Security & a few other groups that are buried in the Congressional Intelligence Committees with some weird acronyms no one really understands. Much of the info on this comes from private citizens in the county, public officials, as well as Coast to Coast with George Noory & Art Bell!. These shows have given incredibly good information on the topic for the last several months, beginning in late 2003.
According to the information available, there are several reasons for the project: 1) Homeland Security needs an system of rapid deployment in the South, free of traffic; 2) certain gov't agencies want an easy connection route with other gov't installations in the South; 3) there is a move on in the intelligence community to begin more efficient use of the underground rail system already in place at Lockheed in Marietta; 4) Paulding is a central location for the complete project that will eventually connect installations in Anniston, AL; Macon, GA; Lockheed in Marietta; Lookout Mtn, TN; Greenville-Spartanburg, SC; & Raleigh-Durham, NC; 5) the Yorkville area of Paulding has been designated as the prime location for these hubs to come together because of geological preference; 6) the addition of new Walmart facilities in NW GA give spur hubs & depots easy access to large areas that can be partitioned off for moving of very large equipment & large numbers of people in case of national emergency.
The intent of the project is to provide another area similar to Area 51 in NM where testing can be done in a more secure domain. While there are several smaller sites like this in the US(Click here for similar project info), this project is the first on such a grand scale. But the main reason the project got off the ground is that the Congressional Budget for 2004 provided several line items for the Homeland Security Dept projects. When these line items were actually mentioned on the floor of the US Congress during budget discussions, VP Cheney abruptly adjourned the session. There were then several high level meetings about these line items (according to Art Bell) & when the Congress met the next day, these line items were no longer listed in the budget but were simply buried in the National Security Agency's funding. The very next day, Governor Sonny Perdue met with the National Security Agency folks in Rome, GA, for some more talks (you probably heard about those meetings on the news).
After the budget was passed, the skies over Paulding were inundated with helicopters from the Army Corps of Engineers & others doing aerial surveying & topographical mapping. It was confirmed what was already known & the tunneling project began immediately in Yorkville about a year ago. Many of our neighbors (including my parents, Firewalker, & others) have been approached by some gov't types & ordered to either stay away from the project or sell out. Many of these folks have sold & the land was purchased by various gov't agencies, usually very quickly.
The Walmart that will be going in on HWY 120 is supposed to be the first in the series of staging areas. It was chosen because of its central location to the entire project & the main hub designated for Yorkville. As new Walmarts are built, more staging areas will be added to each new store as well as to existing Walmarts. These stores have extremely large parking areas & that means the various gov't agencies can use these facilities to move large equipment rapidly, especially to & from Lockheed. The Homeland Security use is just obvious --- ability to move large numbers of troops & high ranking officials in a moments notice while unhindered by traffic & other logistical problems.
The blasting that is being done now has been felt & heard by several Paulding residents, including some minor basement damage to some homes. The project must be moving along rather rapidly since the trucks are working 24/7, including weekends. According to Mr Chairman (Click here for his quote) , the project is moving quite well & anticipated to be saving quite a bit of the county's money. The intent, of course, is to use the general aviation airport here in Paulding as part of the "rapid response" program for the Homeland Security Agency, among other gov't groups.
We also know that there is a definite possibility that NASA will be utilizing the tunnels for movement of materials to Anniston, AL, & Lookout Mtn, TN, because if the proximity to their installation in Huntsville, AL.
All this means a lot of construction & gov't workers are moving into the Yorkville area to get the main hub completed as quickly as possible. Ivan did flood the tunnel
but I understand there were no injuries & the project is back underway only 24 hours after Ivan came through.
Several other projects are going to be the direct result of this: YAMSU; project to build an artificial river in Yorkville with a dam (supposedly for the power generation of the entire tunnel/rail system) much like the Ocoee River; general aviation airport; spurs of the tunnel to the Silver Comet Trail (also for easy access to move light equipment/people without traffic; spurs to the Cartersville Airport & the Bremen distribution center for Walmart.
This should mean a lot of money will be flowing into the county over the next 50 years or so.
Here are some more discussion links
Chairman Shearin Statement #2
Chairman Statement #3
Official Site
Chairman Statement #4
Hiram High Teacher Works w/ Tunnel Project
Yorkville
Dude's Steak House
Tunnel System at BSU Connecting to Walmart
Black Triangle Sightings
Walmart Rumor
Walmart Rumor 2
Union/Draketown/Tallapoosa Tunnel Update
Congressional dignataries visit tunnels in June 05
Explosions felt along Old Cartersville Road.
Nov 11, 2005 Update
Dec 05, 2005 Update
12/10/05 Low Temps Causing Problems
Atlanta Area Tunnel Project
TunnelBuilder.com with good info of the tunnels across the world, including a lenghty piece on Atlanta's tunnel system.
Weather Related Changes for 1st week of Feb 06
Tunnell Tours Cancelled 2/25/06 Due to Rain
College Tunnel Links
Budget Cuts & General Tour Info Possible 01/2007
Free Public Tours Cancelled Due to Weather 1/31/07
Tunnel Tour scheduled 2/16/07, 2 hours only
GA Legislature considering expanding tunnels to include Atlanta. 2/6/07
Atlanta Magazine Article Feb 07
Tunnel Tour of 2/16/07 a Success
Spring Break 07 Work Schedule
Extreme Heat & Power Outage Shut Downs Tunnel, Aug 2007
