Businesses, drivers impacted by I-40 closure expected to last months

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — As crews work to stabilize what’s left of Interstate 40, businesses, like Pilot Flying J, who rely on ground transportation, are feeling the repercussions as the road stays closed.

On Monday, the North Carolina Department of Transportation shared that a portion of Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge will remain closed indefinitely. They said while crews started working on the roads last week to attempt to save what is left of the westbound lanes, complete repair may not begin until January.

“I-40 is a very heavy truck route across America. We have 1500 trucks all across the US,” said Pilot’s vice president of Transportation and Logistics, Jordan Spradling, “and we just had to work with it, add some extra capacity to areas, add extra trucks and drivers to try to backfill some of these different routes and really change where supply comes from.”

Trucks and all other traffic going into North Carolina now have to detour to Virginia through Interstate 81 and approach the state from the north.

“What was maybe a 3.5-hour drive now is a five-hour drive,” said Spradling, “and I know that’s going to put some constraints on supply chains and drivers, truck drivers, as they come through this part of the country. We’re just doing everything we can to keep things moving until these things get fixed.”

Spradling says at Pilot each day is different. They are learning to adapt to changes as they come, like changing routes and learning ways to access stores impacted by the floods.

“Certainly, I know it’s a big engineering feat and we want the roads to be very safe first and foremost, with all the traffic on the roads,” he said. “So that’s probably our biggest goal, and as fast as that can happen, we will be eagerly awaiting to get back to normal, as I’m sure most folks not just semi-trucks, but the traveling public in their cars headed east for various things, it’s going to be tough for a while.”

While it will take a while for North Carolina’s side of I-40 to be completed , for Tennessee’s side of the road, TDOT says they plan to open one lane on each side through Cocke County up to the state line for local traffic. However, they do not have a date set for those lanes to reopen.

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