Two weeks ago, we wrote and shared a post about Hurricane Helene’s damage and what that meant for the highways, bridges and interstates. At the time, entire sections of North Carolina and Tennessee were impassable, including a collapsed portion of I-40. With the west side of North Carolina and eastern Tennessee under water and debris, the priority was saving those in need and keeping an accurate death toll. Now that the waters have receded, the damage can start to be assessed. We said that we would update with news whenever the states started getting plans underway for repairs. Here’s what we currently know.
So far, the five bridges that are “completely gone” will need to be rebuilt, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). Joey Hopkins, Transportation Secretary of North Carolina, says that the current priority is going to be repairing and rebuilding the interstates before the secondary routes. However, they haven’t finished assessing all of the damage yet. TDOT noted that aside from the areas that are completely gone, Bridge 107, and bridges on State Routes 340, 350, and 351 are compromised. The goal was to begin awarding contracts for repairs by September 30th.
Last Tuesday, I-40 was reopened east of Asheville, but from mile marker 3 in Haywood County, it will remain closed indefinitely. I-40 East and West are closed in east Tennessee from mile marker 432 to North Carolina’s mile marker 3. In North Carolina, I-40 West closure continues from mile marker 3 to 435 in Tennessee.
This not only makes it difficult for commerce to flow but another major concern is for the communities that have lost access to each other. The spokesperson for TDOT, Mark Nagi, says that the goal is to connect the communities, but their teams are still in the process of removing all of the debris. Once that part is completed, a more accurate assessment can be done. A complete list of the road closures can be found on TDOT’s website, as well as a project status tracker. Most of the counties affected are Washington, Carter, Unicoi, Johnson, Greene, and Cocke.
NCDOT has made a lot of progress considering they were under water and sludge for a week. Over 600 roads have been reopened. Crews with chainsaws have been cutting and moving debris over to road shoulders, creating over 4,100 debris sites along the roads (these are called “cut and shove crews”). Joey Hopkins estimates that the damage estimates are up to “several billion dollars” but the assessments aren’t finished yet. Over 6,900 sites of roads and bridges are damaged.
As of October 17, a $10 million contract was awarded to the Wright Brothers Construction to begin the stabilization of I-40 westbound lanes in Pigeon River Gorge. Though it can’t be guaranteed, the contract includes incentives to complete the project by January 4th. Some of the “cut and shove crews” are transitioning to reconstruction, but aside from the road ways, 19,000 places still need power restored. More than 2,000 employees are working on recovery efforts. However, an issue that continues to cause delays is the traffic. The agency has requested all non-local personnel to refrain from traveling in the western North Carolina area. Otherwise, recovery efforts have to pause to allow traffic to pass, only adding to the time that it’ll take to reopen the roads.
Thankfully, with more roadways open, damage in the process of being assessed, and power very slowly reaching those that need it, North Carolina and Tennessee are on the road to recovery. We at Interstate Signways are continuing to keep them in or thoughts and are hoping for the best.