Stretch of I-40 reopens in North Carolina, marking a milestone in post-Helene recovery

(CNN) — Five months after Hurricane Helene severed a critical Appalachian freight corridor, a 12-mile stretch of Interstate 40 through North Carolina’s Pigeon River Gorge reopened Saturday.

Though still a construction zone, the highway is mostly operational. Its four lanes have been reduced to two, with the roadway held together by nails drilled deep into the mountainside. Tractor-trailers now thread between 9-inch concrete barriers as engineers continue their work.

Reopening that stretch of I-40 restores a vital freight corridor that supports both regional industries and national supply chains.

Before Hurricane Helene washed out a 4-mile stretch of I-40 connecting North Carolina and Tennessee in late September, this section of the highway served as a trucking route linking East Coast ports to Midwestern hubs.

Its closure disrupted shipments of everything from auto parts to produce from Tennessee, while stranding tourists headed for Asheville, where the hospitality industry generates over $2 billion annually.

State officials estimate the closure cost local businesses millions in lost revenue, underscoring I-40’s role as an economic lifeline for western North Carolina and beyond.

“You start thinking, ‘What the heck are we going to do?’ Because operational-wise, that’s where 90% to 95% of our trucks take that route every single day,” said Spencer Linn, vice president of East West Inc., a North Carolina-based family trucking company that transports auto parts nationwide.

The closure of I-40 forced Linn’s drivers to add nearly 300 miles to their routes, significantly cutting into revenue as they rerouted shipments to key destinations like Indianapolis, Chicago, and Kansas City.

Even with the highway reopening, Linn remains concerned about lingering challenges. “We believe that even when it opens there’s going to be a lot of logistical issues and a lot of delays with it being one lane,” he told CNN affiliate Spectrum News Charlotte.

A temporary fix

The highway’s reopening marks a fragile victory — a temporary fix that funnels traffic through single lanes flanked by construction crews still drilling into crumbling slopes, with speed limits halved to 35 mph and oversized trucks banned indefinitely.

“This is an active work zone,” warned North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) engineer Nathan Tanner, who oversaw the emergency stabilization of the slopes. “Our contractors will be pursuing the permanent repair of I-40 the entire time they’re traveling through this location.”

So, how do you rebuild a completely washed-out stretch of highway perched precariously next to a winding river? The answer: nails. Not just any nails — long, steel-reinforced soil nails.

“It’s a temporary shoring mechanism that uses steel rods drilled into the mountainside into competent rock to hold everything in place so that we didn’t lose any more of the open travel lanes,” Tanner explained at a news conference Friday.

Geotechnical engineers installed 90,000 square feet of soil-nail walls, drilled nearly 2,100 feet of nails, and utilized 15,200 pounds of steel across damaged portions of the highway to fortify 4 miles of the shoulder for truck traffic, according to NCDOT.

Current costs for the temporary fix of the washed-out portion of I-40 are estimated to be upwards of $15 million, Tanner said. He added that costs for the permanent repair to the highway are still being calculated, and exact figures weren’t readily available.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy visited the storm ravaged region for the first time in February where he emphasized the Trump administration’s intent to “build infrastructure faster, better, and more affordably.”

During his visit, Duffy announced a partnership between the US Department of Transportation and the US Forest Service to grant a “Special Use” permit allowing NCDOT to use construction materials from nearby locations — reducing costs, saving time, and lowering environmental impact by cutting transportation distances.

Hurricane Helene’s fury

While the reopening of the washed-out portion of I-40 marks a significant milestone in post-Helene recovery efforts, the road to full restoration remains fraught with challenges.

Hurricane Helene left a trail of devastation across the southeast, causing widespread and devastating flooding that transformed entire communities into scenes of “biblical devastation.”

The Category 4 storm made landfall on September 26, unleashing record-setting storm surges and life-threatening flash floods that killed at least 232 people across six states.

The storm ravaged the terrain alongside I-40, eroding 3 million cubic yards of earth and rock from the mountainside, leaving behind a scarred landscape and a daunting reconstruction challenge.

In North Carolina, then-Gov. Roy Cooper described Helene as “one of the worst storms in modern history” for the state, with western regions experiencing intense rainfall and robust winds that turned roads into rivers and stranded many without essential supplies.

“Damage estimates from what we have been able to assess to this point are up to several billion dollars and we’re not done,” state Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins said in October.

Hopkins updated state officials Thursday on NCDOT’s progress, warning they “haven’t spent 10% of what we estimate it is going to cost, and it’s going to take years to do this.”

Officials estimate it will take another two to three years to fully restore I-40 to its original four-lane capacity. However, this timeline is contingent on several factors, including material availability and weather conditions.

“We’re about 10 to 12 percent into designing a permanent solution,” Tanner said.

“We are happy to have this open for the people who depend on a connected transportation system between North Carolina and Tennessee,” said NCDOT Division 14 engineer Wanda Payne.

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