Twenty-six days after Hurricane Helene caused devastating flooding in the area, the The North Carolina and Tennessee departments of transportation are moving forward with a long list of road repairs, including two bridges in Tennessee that were destroyed by floodwaters on state highways.
In Tennessee, the state’s first progressive design and build (PDB) contract was awarded Oct. 2 to Kiewit Infrastructure South Co. to speed up the replacement of two bridges destroyed by floodwaters. Both bridges, on State Route 107 in Greene County and State Route 81 in Washington County, will reopen in June 2025.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation notes that its use of the PDB method, also used by the Florida Department of Transportation in its post-Hurricane Ian Sanibel Causeway reconstruction project, is made possible by the Transportation Modernization Act of the state
The study and design are ongoing, as are site cleanup and removal of bridge pieces in the right-of-way, TDOT says, and construction is expected to begin in January 2025 on both bridges open to traffic in June 2025 and completion of the final project in August.
Also, repair plans are taking shape on Interstate 40 between Tennessee and North Carolina, which remains closed after multiple landslides and washouts, including on the North Carolina side, where the Pigeon River completely washed away two of four lanes of the state’s busiest highway. .
The North Carolina Department of Transportation has awarded a $10 million contract to Wright Brothers Construction, along with subcontractor GeoStabilization International, to stabilize I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge area, including incentives for the work to be end on January 4.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg toured I-40 along with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) and NCDOT Secretary Joey Hopkins, saying “it’s going to take thousands of millions of dollars and months, if not years,” to fully repair I-40, according to the report. of WCNC Charlotte.
Buttigieg said the federal government has approved $100 million in emergency road repair funds for North Carolina, although timelines have yet to be set.
Elsewhere, NCDOT has reopened nearly 800 of the roughly 1,200 roads that were closed after the storm. NCDOT continues to restore access with more than 2,000 employees in western North Carolina working to reopen closed roads. Portions of I-40 and Interstate 26 in Henderson and Polk counties south of Asheville have also been reopened.
NCDOT is also holding several prequalification sessions for companies looking to help restore western North Carolina after the storm, an effort it says will require billions of dollars.
A first webinar was held on October 22, covering contracting opportunities for debris removal, construction, paving, traffic control and other recovery work, and how companies can prequalify to bid on NCDOT contracts. Six in-person prequalification workshops are scheduled Oct. 29-30 in Asheville, as well as in-person prequalification workshops on Oct. 24 in Fayetteville and Nov. 14 in Rocky Mount.
Asheville is slowly recovering
Asheville, North Carolina, has restored water service to nearly all of its customers, after working around the clock to reconnect a 36-in. branch line that connects your largest source of drinking water. That connection was made at 1 a.m. Oct. 10 by local contractors TP Howard’s Plumbing and Tennoca Construction Co., and in an Oct. 21 update, Asheville Water System spokesman Clay Chandler , reported that the city had restored service to 95 percent of its customers.
“We are grateful to our customers for their patience as we navigate the challenges of restarting a water system following the worst natural disaster in western North Carolina’s recorded history,” Chandler says in the update.
Boil water advisories remain in place as the North Fork Reservoir, at which the 36-in. line connected, it remains too cloudy for normal operation.
Treatment has been applied to the water, although it is not clearing as officials had hoped, instead it is clearing turbidity from depths of 40-50 feet while the surface level remains full of sediment. A second treatment is scheduled for around October 28.
Crews will place a sediment curtain in a 500-foot circle around the dam once the curtain arrives around Oct. 24-25, he adds.
Smaller pockets are without power due to small infrastructure washouts, such as in the Town Mountain area, where Chandler says a 3-inch water line was disconnected by a landslide, cutting off water to between 60 and 75 households.
But before those repairs can be made, the city must first coordinate with NCDOT to repair the roads leading into the area.
