NCDOT Awards Contract to Stabilize I-40; Long-Term Plan Still in the Works
NCDOT has awarded a $10 million contract to stabilize the westbound lanes of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge.
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North Carolina DOT employees have opened 600 roads since Hurricane Helene dealt serious damage to the western part of the state, but a long-term plan for reopening damaged sections of Interstate 40 is still in the works.
Over 2,000 NCDOT employees have been mobilized to help with recovery. Some of the reopened roads include I-40 near Old Fort and in downtown Asheville and I-26 in Henderson and Polk counties. NCDOT says it identified more than 6,900 sites where roads and bridges are damaged and reported closures on thoroughfares including U.S. 64, U.S. 19, N.C. 215, N.C. 226 and N.C. 197.
NCDOT has awarded a $10 million contract to Wright Brothers Construction of Asheboro to stabilize the westbound lanes of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge – including incentives to complete the work by January 4 – and a long-term plan for this stretch of the interstate is still being worked on with the Federal Highway Administration.
Wright Brothers crews have been working on various sites in the western North Carolina to reconnect communities, including building an emergency bridge in Polk County.
“Damage estimates from what we have been able to assess to this point are up to several billion dollars, and we’re not done,” said state Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins. “The damage to our roads and bridges is like nothing we’ve ever seen after any storm, and this will be a long-term recovery operation. But we will be here until western North Carolina can get back on its feet.”
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on September 27 as a Category 4 storm, dealing significant damage to several Southeastern states and killing over 200 people. An October 4 report from AASHTO said Helene dumped an estimated 20 trillion to 40 trillion gallons of water in the Southeast and caused $35 billion or more in damages. The Associated Press recently put the death toll at 227.
An October 1 estimate from AccuWeather valued the total damage and economic loss from the storm at $225 billion to $250 billion.
