Five months later, NC to Tennessee connection is open, with limits

For the first time since Hurricane Helene in late September, drivers can travel on Interstate 40 from North Carolina to Tennessee. 

The highway at Pigeon River Gorge was washed out in the storm, forcing hours-long detours along the route between the two states. 

After about a billion dollars and five months of work, a single lane in each direction opened to traffic on Saturday.

David Uchiyama, communications officer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation in the Western Mountains, says getting these 12 miles of road
back open has been an extraordinary effort.

“People have put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears, and in
conditions where the tears would freeze to the face, because it is cold,” he said.

To protect the travel lanes from further mud slides, NCDOT, Wright Brothers and GeoStablization International drove steel rods into bedrock, filled the rods with grout, applied a metal screen and sprayed concrete on the face of the walls.

They also fortified four miles of the shoulder for truck traffic.

Uchiyama says DOT crews have thoroughly stabilized and
inspected the reopened lanes. 

“As a matter of fact, I saw the geotech engineers walking the
entire stretch, and I mean left foot, right foot,” he said.

And the work is far from complete. The 12-mile stretch, from Cold Springs Creek Road in North Carolina to Big Creek Road in Tennessee, is just two single lanes, narrower than before, and speed is limited to 35 mph. 

“This opening improves the flow of people, goods and services between our two states and between locations far beyond Haywood County,” said Wanda Payne, an engineer with NDOT.

There is still a very long road ahead to fully heal the scars left by Helene — work that will be measured in years. Travelers should still expect delays through the mountains and consider whether alternate routes would be better.

North Carolina government has already entered a contract for the road’s permanent reconstruction. Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins told state lawmakers this week it would be late 2026 before the section can resume fully to four lanes, provided that stone can be quarried from the adjoining Pisgah National Forest. Otherwise, he said, it could take two to three additional years longer, because trucks will have to ship stone in from Tennessee.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.