HAYWOOD COUNTY, NC, (WATE) — The four-mile stretch of I-40 on the Tennessee and North Carolina border will reopen to motor traffic Saturday, according to North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Five months after Hurricane Helene initially swept a portion of the interstate into the Pigeon River, NCDOT said two lanes, one in each direction, will reopen. However, travelers should expect delays.
“The delay time could be significant,” said NCDOT construction engineer Nathan Tanner. “I would say hours instead of minutes, and I think people should just be prepared for that.”
Despite longer delays, Tanner said opening this stretch of highway is essential for both Tennessee and North Carolina’s economies as it was often used for commercial businesses and tourism.
“Opening it up will provide us a way to transport those goods in and out of North Carolina and allow us to bring some form of tourism back to North Carolina, which will also help local economies,” he said.
While the interstate will only be opened to one lane traveling both directions, there will be a third lane used for emergency response.
“Our thought process there is that if we do have collisions inside the open lanes of travel from Tennessee and from the North Carolina side, first responders will be able to access those collisions through that emergency travel lane to locations where we have placed breaks in the nine inch by nine inch concrete curves,” said Tanner.
While they still have much more to do to permanently repair the area, Tanner said it is one of the most significant projects they have ever worked on.
“I’ve never been involved in something this large or this significant,” he said. “I think a lot of people in D.O.T. have never seen this level of damage along a primary interstate route ever in their careers. It’s historic for North Carolina, It’s historic for the country”
Tanner said permanent repairs to the roadway are only about 10-12% complete, and it may be two or three years until the road is back to what it was.
The post I-40 to reopen at Tennessee-North Carolina state line five months after Helene damage first appeared on Enegxi News – News As It’s Happening.
