More than 600 roads have reopened in western North Carolina since Tropical Storm Helene flooded small mountain towns, but hundreds more remain closed including Interstate 40 near Tennessee.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation announced a $10 million contract with a construction firm on Monday that will work to repair I-40 westbound in the coming months in the Pigeon River Gorge. While NCDOT says the interstate remains closed indefinitely, the contract includes incentives to be completed by Jan. 4, 2025.
NCDOT says the crews have started work on I-40 by drilling soil nails to stabilize the westbound lanes. The agency said it’s “making headway on its busiest road” and working with Tennessee transportation officials and the Federal Highway Administration on the long-term plan for the reconstruction of I-40 in the gorge.
“Damage estimates from what we have been able to assess to this point are up to several billion dollars and we’re not done,” said state Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins. “The damage to our roads and bridges is like nothing we’ve ever seen after any storm, and this will be a long-term recovery operation. But we will be here until Western North Carolina can get back on its feet.”
Crews and contractors have reopened more than 600 North Carolina roads as workers continue making progress to help communities impacted by Hurricane Helene. The state agency has identified nearly 7,000 sites where roads and bridges are damaged. Roughly 600 additional roads remain closed, including parts of US 64, US 19, NC 215, NC 226, and NC 197, and the number could rise as the state agency continues its assessment.
More than 2,000 NCDOT employees are working on the recovery operations, and the agency is still urging people not to travel to western North Carolina unless they are local, responding to the recovery effort, or have essential travel needs.
“Non-essential traffic continues to hinder our efforts to reopen roads,” Hopkins said. “Many of our crews are having to stop work to allow traffic through damaged areas. We’re working as hard as we can, but we need most of these travelers to use alternate routes outside of the impacted areas to get through and around Western North Carolina.”
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