DOT outlines I-40 rebuild: With environmental permitting process over, real work begins
The signs are still there lining the fragile bank separating Interstate 40 from the Pigeon River — chunks of jagged asphalt, wayward pipes, rusty cables bent into submission by nature.
Just 11 months ago, as Hurricane Helene mercilessly swamped the whole region, the river, now low and calm, was force-fed by its tributaries and swelled to the point it carried away 10 sections of I-40’s eastbound lanes over about a five-mile stretch near the Tennessee border.