The project to repair the eastbound lanes of I-40 washed away in Haywood County during Hurricane Helene is progressing on-time, but the heavy lift has really just begun. When Helene tore through Western North Carolina in 2024, it inundated the embankment supporting the highway so vital to interstate commerce, washing away about a million cubic yards of rock and dropping the eastbound lanes into the water below.

NCDOT partners with wildlife agencies on creative concept for bat habitat. Sometimes, it helps to step away from the workplace to get the creativity flowing. That’s what happened to Kenny McCourt, an N.C. Department of Transportation resident engineer overseeing a set of bridge replacement projects on Interstate 40 in Haywood County. 

Editor’s note: This piece is the second of a two-part series exploring plans to rebuild I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge and the project’s implication for wildlife populations in the region. Find the first installment in last week’s Smoky Mountain News print edition or online at smokymountainnews.com.

As the floodwaters of Hurricane Helene receded, they revealed extensive damage to Interstate 40 through the Pigeon River Gorge, promising that the rebuilding effort would be a top priority for the NC Department of Transportation in the years ahead.

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”

— Benjamin Franklin (probably)

When Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, an oft repeated theme among elected and civic leaders was that the area would be built back better.

A critical process has been completed, permitting the N.C. Department of Transportation and its project team to extract rock necessary for reconstruction of Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge. 

If you’re like me, you avoid driving I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge like warm beer on a hot summer day. 

Hey, if I have to circle through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas to enter Tennessee from the west and then drive east back to Knoxville, I’ll do it. Perhaps I exaggerate, but that drive through the gorge to Knoxville has always been one of white knuckles, clinched orifices and prayers that speeding semis don’t topple over on you in a curve. 

Heavy rains on the afternoon of June 18 led to a substantial rockslide on the Tennessee side of the state line that caused a closure of I-40 that officials believe will last until about July 4. 

The N.C. Department of Transportation and its partners have selected two sites in the Pigeon River Gorge for extracting and storing material to help rebuild sections of Interstate 40 damaged by Hurricane Helene.

It’s been about five months since the 20-mile stretch of Interstate 40 in Haywood County up to the Tennessee state line has been shut down due to massive damage over a span of about three miles, but as of now, one lane of travel in each direction is expected to be restored next week. 

Officials at all levels of government, including new U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, visited the construction area along I-40 near the Tennessee border to take a look at progress and renew the pledge to get the necessary repairs done as quickly and safely as possible.