The rockslide is on the Tennessee side, a few miles away from the Dragon. Apparently, that keeps the number of Tennessee Highway Patrol cars to a minimum.
The only real problem is that it's an extra 100 miles to get to the south end if you're coming from the north. Another problem might be that if you need an ambulance, they usually came from Maryville. Expect a looonnnng wait.
Edit: there will be a couple of THP watching over the Dragon with supposedly zero tolerance for shenanigans. Another site to follow for updates besides the one Jeff pointed out:
http://dealsgap.com/index.htmlMaybe they'll have it open by May, the story is that there are quite a few people that work on one side of the slide and live on the other that are pretty unhappy about it taking months to clear the slide.