You must not know the area. I've spent years in that area since I was a kid. My grandfather lived on the Qualla Boundary (reservation). The only sizable paved roads have to follow the rivers because that's the only part that isn't the side of a mountain. Sure there are small paved and dirt secondary roads leading up hollers or to a home but there's no way to build a road of any size on those hillsides. And those all basically lead to nowhere because all the towns are in valleys carved out by the rivers.