Two lanes of I-40 – an interstate highway heavily damaged by extreme flooding caused by Hurricane Helene back in late September 2024 – should be reopened to traffic by March 1, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
[Above photo by NCDOT]
Governor Josh Stein (D) and Joey Hopkins, NCDOT secretary, made the announcement in early February at a news conference attended by Congressional representatives and Sean Duffy, the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, as part of a broad update about ongoing storm recovery efforts in Western NC.
“I am pleased to announce that we will reopen two lanes of I-40 by March 1,” the governor said in a statement. “Reopening these lanes will help reconnect North Carolina and Tennessee and allow us to welcome back visitors to bolster the economy.”
“We’re happy that we can open I-40 in a couple of weeks. That will help travel and commerce between North Carolina and Tennessee,” NCDOT’s Hopkins added. “And we’ll continue working on the rest of the routes until we get those built, too – we’re here to the end.”
NCDOT noted that the flooding caused entire sections of the eastbound lanes to “slough off” and fall into in the raging Pigeon River. The agency is currently working with its contract partners – Wright Brothers Construction as the prime contractor and GeoStabilization Inc. as the sub-contractor – to complete stabilization of the westbound lanes of the interstate, installing 40 mph speed limit signs and a nine-inch curb to separate the two travel lanes, and conduct further inspections to ensure the safety of those travel lanes.
The agency added that one lane of the interstate will be open in each direction from Exit 20 to Exit 15 for non-Helene construction and again from Exit 7 to the state line and about five miles into Tennessee. This stretch will be open for standard-sized trucks, but no oversized loads, NCDOT said.
“I expressed my appreciation for the USDOT’s partnership and emphasized that there are billions of dollars of work still to do to get people safely back on the roads,” Gov. Stein noted. “I look forward to working with [USDOT] Secretary Duffy and our federal partners to ensure we have the resources we need to rebuild our infrastructure as quickly as possible. And I am grateful for his visit to shine a spotlight on western North Carolina. It is clear to me that he intends to help.”
NCDOT added that crews tasked with the permanent reconstruction of I-40 will soon mobilize to begin the next part of recovery efforts in the Pigeon Gorge area. NCDOT awarded a contract in October 2024 in which Ames Construction is serving as the prime contractor, RK&K as the designer and HNTB as the project manager for the permanent repairs.
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