North Carolina companies work to rebuild critical infrastructure after Helene

NORTH CAROLINA ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — Road work continues as crews try to put the pieces back together in Western North Carolina into Tennessee. Now, state and federal agencies are relying on local companies to rebuild highways damaged by Helene.

“We were actually put on notice before the hurricane hit that they were going to need some emergency help. No one knew the level that they would need,” Harbin said.

Mary Katherine Harbin with Morganton-based Maymead Inc. says their family-owned and operated business with roughly 400 employees is running point on four emergency projects in Tennessee and North Carolina.

“Our quarry since the hurricane has shipped three times its normal volume on a daily basis just with the needs for reconstructive efforts,” Harbin said.,

That material has been used to shore up embankments and roads that washed away when Helene hit. Their projects include Highway 105 and NC 88 in the Tar Heel State and 421 in northeastern Tennessee.

“Rebuilding roads, I would say, we don’t do a whole lot of that in the mountains,” Harbin said. “We have really good subgrade; we have rock bases for the roads that we are driving on every day.”

Harbin says the level of reconstruction is new and unprecedented for them. Especially when their own facility in Mountain City was impacted by the storm.

“Typically, we don’t have to build our own roads to get to our own properties to get the work accessible,” she said.

While every project is urgent, perhaps the most dire one is regaining access to the local Baxter manufacturing plant, which is the nation’s leading IV fluid producer in North Carolina. Maymead is just one of many companies working with the state Department of Transportation to get traffic back on track. Harbin says it comes down to the people putting in the long hours.

“The Mountaineers of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee are gritty, resilient people, and they are hard workers and absolutely dedicated to our area, and we could not do what we’re doing at this point without them,” Harbin said.

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