Reopening of I-40 in Western NC delayed after another section of the road collapses
Nearly three months after Hurricane Helene swept through the mountains, another chunk of the eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 fell into the Pigeon River this week, forcing the N.C. Department of Transportation to postpone reopening the highway between North Carolina and Tennessee.
NCDOT had planned to open the westbound lanes to two-way traffic the first week of January. That has now been delayed indefinitely, until contractors can shore up the section of the eastbound lanes that failed this week.
The flooded Pigeon River washed away more than a mile of the eastbound lanes of I-40 in the gorge on Sept. 27, severing the main connection between North Carolina and Tennessee.
Since then, contractors have been clearing damaged parts of the highway and stabilizing what’s left using a process called “soil nailing.” They drive long steel rods into bedrock below the road, fill them with grout that adheres to the rock and then spray concrete on the cliff face to hold the rods in place and create a solid wall.
They’ll now need to do that work on the section that failed this week.
There has been no flooding in the gorge since the storm. But cracks in the pavement allowed water to get under the highway and freeze, eventually dislodging a 60-foot section of the eastbound lanes almost to the concrete median.
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NCDOT engineers began monitoring the cracks on Monday; by Thursday, the road had fallen into the river.
The collapse took place about 3 miles from the Tennessee line.
NCDOT has chosen a team of contractors to rebuild the missing eastbound lanes. The team hasn’t finished its strategy yet or determined how long the work will take or how much it will cost.
“We would like to open the corridor as soon as it is safe to do so,” said Wanda Payne, NCDOT’s division engineer. “We know it is a critical route for folks who live here, visit here and travel through here.”
In the meantime, transportation officials in both states hope to allow traffic to use the surviving westbound lanes. I-40 will be narrowed to one lane in each direction for nine miles — five in North Carolina and four in Tennessee, which also lost sections of eastbound lanes. Tennessee converted its four miles to two-way traffic in October, though the highway is open only to the last exit in the state.
NCDOT contractors are nearly finished installing a low concrete barrier down the middle of the westbound lanes and paving over the rumble strips along the shoulder. The lanes will be 11 feet wide, a foot narrower than the interstate standard, so the speed limit will be 40 mph.
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The other interstate connection between North Carolina and Tennessee, I-26, was also closed after Helene, when two spans of a bridge over the Nolichucky River collapsed in Erwin.
I-26 reopened Oct. 30 after the Tennessee Department of Transportation built a temporary causeway over the river while repairs to the bridge take place. Traffic is reduced to one lane in each direction where it crosses the Nolichucky. Vehicles more than 10 feet wide or overweight are prohibited and should continue to detour using Interstates 81 and 77.
Flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Helene closed more than 1,400 roads in Western North Carolina. NCDOT and its contractors have been able to reopen most of them. As of Friday, 186 remained closed and another 78 had limited access.
In many cases, the long-term closures occurred where swollen creeks and rivers washed out bridges or sections of pavement and the earth beneath it. NCDOT has estimated that it will cost $5 billion to rebuild state roads and bridges, including an estimated $1 billion to fully reopen I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge.
