‘Gone.’ The main route through the NC mountains will take a long time to rebuild

Of all the roads that need fixing in Western North Carolina, none will pose a bigger challenge than Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge.

The swollen river scoured the earth below the four-lane highway, washing away the eastbound lanes in several places. The largest section, about 4 miles from the Tennessee line, gave way around noon on Friday.

Remarkably, no one has reported any cars or trucks tumbling into the river, according to the State Highway Patrol.

But the highway is closed in both directions, severing the busiest connection between North Carolina and Tennessee, used by some 26,000 drivers a day. An alternate route, Interstate 26, is also closed because of severe flooding on the Tennessee side near the town of Erwin.

Both are likely to remain closed for a long time.

N.C. Department of Transportation engineers visited the damaged sections of I-40 on Monday, with officials from the Federal Highway Administration and the Tennessee Department of Transportation. They returned Tuesday to begin to determine how they will shore up and stabilize the eroded sections so they don’t get any worse, according to NCDOT spokesman David Uchiyama.

“Those operations should begin within a week,” Uchiyama wrote in an email.

But NCDOT engineers are only beginning to try to figure out how to rebuild I-40, Uchiyama said. Over a four-mile stretch near the Tennessee line, the two eastbound lanes are “either gone or partially gone,” he said, and there are three other damaged places spread over the next 11 miles.

It’s not clear yet if the westbound lanes will be usable while the eastbound lanes are rebuilt, Uchiyama said.

A road difficult to build and maintain

It took 15 years to build the section of I-40 that connects North Carolina and Tennessee. The highway snakes alongside the Pigeon River, perched on a shelf blasted from the side of the mountains. When the road opened in 1968, N.C. Gov. Dan Moore is reported to have said, “The genius of modern man has shown itself to be superior to the adversities of nature.”

But nature has never conceded, and I-40’s path through the Pigeon River Gorge has always been precarious.

Usually the threat comes from above, as rocks slide down the walls of the gorge onto the highway on both sides of the state line. A slide on the North Carolina side in October 2009 closed the interstate in both directions for six months, as crews cleared debris and stabilized with rock face.

During that closure, westbound drivers were encouraged to take I-26 north from Asheville to I-81 at Johnston City, Tennessee.

But that’s not an option now. Floodwaters knocked down twin spans that carried I-26 over the Nolichucky River in Erwin, about 40 miles from the North Carolina line. Tennessee DOT spokesman Mark Nagi says there’s no timeline set for rebuilding them and reopening the highway.

For now, traffic apps are advising drivers wishing to go west toward Knoxville and Nashville from the Triangle to take I-77 north to I-81 near Wytheville, Virginia . Drivers leaving Charlotte are advised to take Highway 321 to I-40 west to US 25/70 to I-81.