News

I-40 to open through gorge (2 lanes) on March 1, Stein announces

Another large chunk of I-40 East collapsed into the Pigeon River in December, delaying plans to reopen the road by year's end.

By Lightning Reports, Published: February 11, 2025

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein and N.C. Department of Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins delivered a message Monday showing that progress continues on the road to recovery from Hurricane Helene.

“I am pleased to announce that we will reopen two lanes of I-40 by March 1,” the governor said while standing on a section of the closed interstate. “I am proud of NCDOT’s focus on this challenge and the roadworkers who have worked tirelessly to reopen roads and keep people safe. Reopening these lanes will help reconnect North Carolina and Tennessee and allow us to welcome back visitors to bolster the economy.”

NCDOT and its contract partners will spend the next few weeks completing the stabilization of the westbound lanes of the interstate, installing 40 mph speed limit signs and a 9-inch curb to separate the two travel lanes, and inspecting the area for safety.

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.

On Monday, Stein and Hopkins met with local, state and federal officials at the site of the largest slope failure in the 4-mile corridor. Dignitaries included U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, U.S. Reps. Tim Moore and Chuck Edwards, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. All are working to help NCDOT and Western North Carolina recover from the most damaging and most expensive natural disaster in state history.

“As I welcomed Secretary Duffy to North Carolina today to show him the devastating impact Hurricane Helene had on our roads, I expressed my appreciation for U.S. DOT’s partnership and emphasized that there are billions of dollars of work still to do to get people safely back on the roads,” Stein said. “I look forward to working with 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.”

Damage from the storm closed I-40 on Sept. 28. Entire sections of the eastbound lanes sloughed off in the raging Pigeon River. NCDOT officials immediately began designing a plan to reopen the interstate to at least some traffic.

NCDOT hired Wright Brothers Construction as the prime contractor and GeoStabilization Inc. as the sub-contractor to establish soil-nail walls at 10 locations in the Gorge. This historic operation includes the following in a 126-day span:

• 530 cubic yards of shotcrete
• 2,088 linear feet of soil nails
• 15,200 pounds of steel in the center curb
• 4 miles of fortified shoulder to carry heavy truck traffic
• Installation of 90,000 square feet of soil-nail wall

Crews tasked with the permanent reconstruction of I-40 will soon mobilize to begin their part of the recovery in the Gorge. NCDOT awarded a contract in October 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.

“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,” Hopkins said. “And we’ll continue working on the rest of the routes until we get those built, too – we're here to the end.”