‘A once-in-a-career event’: NCDOT officials tackle I-40 rebuild after Helene

WLOS

By Elijah Skipper

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    HAYWOOD COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — Nearly a year after Hurricane Helene ripped apart Interstate 40 through the Pigeon River Gorge, officials with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) say the scale of the rebuild is unlike anything the state has ever attempted.

On Thursday, NCDOT engineers led reporters deep into the five-mile work zone to show the damage, progress and the long road ahead.

“This was kind of a once-in-a-career event,” said Wesley Grindstaff, Division 14 engineer, who has worked with NCDOT for 25 years. “This route is critical not just regionally but nationwide. For commerce, for the movement of goods, this highway has to be restored.”

Hurricane Helene washed away sections of up to two lanes between the Tennessee state line and mile marker 5 in Haywood County.

To stabilize the corridor, crews have installed more than 128,000 square feet of temporary soil nail walls, steel rods drilled deep into the mountainside, anchored with grout, and coated with shotcrete to hold slopes in place.

“That work has kept our crews safe and kept this corridor open,” said Josh Deaton, division construction engineer. “We got a contractor on board within weeks of the storm, and those walls have allowed us to reestablish one lane of traffic in each direction since March.”

A temporary causeway has also been completed, which allows heavy equipment and workers access to the damaged highway. By harvesting stone from the site, NCDOT says costs have been reduced by about two-thirds, and construction time has been cut nearly in half.

The permanent solution will be far more complex.

Engineers plan to build massive retaining walls of roller-compacted concrete, a material more often used in dam construction. Those walls will be up to 30 feet thick and anchored directly into bedrock both horizontally and vertically.

Another technique, the interlocking pipe pile wall, involves drilling continuous steel casings into bedrock to form a sealed wall face.

“These are technologies rarely used in North Carolina road construction,” Deaton said. “This site demands it. Our structures are being designed to withstand the same forces that Helene brought last year.”

Sensors are also being buried along the slopes to provide real-time alerts if any movement occurs, sending text and email warnings to project managers.

The full rebuild is expected to cost about $1.36 billion, funded largely through federal emergency relief dollars approved by Congress. NCDOT estimates work will continue until at least 2028.

At the height of construction, between 300 and 500 workers are expected to be on site, supported by 10 to 20 subcontractors.

“We’ve had staff and contractors working tirelessly for a year, through the winter and under really harsh conditions,” Grindstaff said. “A lot of sacrifices have been made to get us to this point.” For now, I-40 remains one lane in each direction through the gorge. Officials warn drivers to expect delays, especially during Labor Day weekend.

“Give yourself extra time,” Deaton said. “We anticipate significant traffic increases on holiday weekends.”

Despite the challenges, officials say the work has already helped stabilize Western North Carolina’s economy by reopening at least part of the vital corridor.

“To design for a storm like Helene and know our repairs can withstand that moving forward, that’s pretty special,” Grindstaff said.

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