Contractor Wright Brothers Construction and GeoStabilization International are stabilizing several thousand feet of lanes via soil-nail walls as part of an $8.5-million contract, per NCDOT. The operation includes inserting long rods into bedrock below the road, filling them with grout to adhere the rods to the rock and spraying concrete on the cut face to hold the rods in place and create a solid wall. 

Crews will also install a concrete safety barrier along the five miles of westbound lanes in North Carolina, separating eastbound and westbound traffic from the double tunnel to the Tennessee state line. For the four miles of I-40 in Tennessee, there is a two-lane pattern already open for local traffic only. According to NCDOT, a daily average of 26,500 vehicles traversed the corridor in 2023. 

Completion of the work will provide enough space for vehicles to travel at 40 mph on one lane in each direction over a 9-mile stretch of the gorge covering areas of both Tennessee and North Carolina. The configuration will also provide another contractor enough room to safely complete long-term repairs over the coming years. 

NCDOT has contracted with RK&K to design the reconstruction, Ames Construction as contractor and HNTB as project manager. No timeframe has been set for selection of a design or for start of construction, and no general cost estimates have yet been identified. 

NCDOT also continues work on local roads washed out by stormwaters, including south of Asheville in Chimney Rock and Bat Cave, where they’ve also had to battle some social media misinformation about U.S. Highway 64/74A, which was washed away by the Broad River. 

A widely shared video purported to show a crew of miners from West Virginia reopening the road into the town, but NCDOT spokesperson David Uchiyama tells ENR that while the intentions are appreciated and volunteers from across the country have helped the region in multiple areas, the miners created a path not sufficient to support vehicular traffic that was also on private land beyond the purview of transportation officials. 

State crews created some of the first connections for the area via ATV paths to reach stranded residents off US 64/74A, and contract crews are at work moving the Broad River to the west in order to re-establish a temporary two-lane gravel road, construction of which is expected to be complete in four to six weeks. 

For the foreseeable future, he adds, the road will remain for local, construction and emergency traffic only while NCDOT drafts a contract to construct a new road in the approximate location of the former one. It’s expected to be a progressive design-build project with an award for design and construction expected in late November. The approximate estimate for construction, including river relocation, is two to three years.

Water Restoration Work Progresses

In Asheville, work continues clearing debris and repairing water infrastructure as turbidity in the city’s primary reservoir remains high, though spokesperson Clay Chandler said in a Nov. 15 update that boil water advisories could be lifted by Nov. 20 and the water treatment plant there has reached a capacity of more than 20 million gpd. 

“We’ve been able to feed a sufficient amount of filtered water into the distribution system without blending it with raw water,” he said, adding that filtered water has been added into the system for about a week. “The system has for the most part turned over, and the vast majority of raw water has been replaced with treated water.” 

Now a sampling process will start Nov. 16 to gather 120 samples, which could be completed by the evening of Nov. 19, telling the city whether it can lift the boil water notice. 

A contractor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted a site visit Nov. 11 as part of an effort to construct an interim pre-treatment system, according to a Nov. 14 update from the city. Materials and equipment for the project could arrive as soon as the weekend of Nov. 15, with the system set to be operational in late November or early December. 

Asheville has also been conducting investigative sampling at dozens of sites throughout its system for lead, aluminum, iron, manganese and more as part of a storm-specific water sampling plan. Chlorine treatments of 8 ppm following Helene that were allowed by state and federal environmental agencies have been lowered to 2.5 ppm. Reports show aluminum levels of between 0.05-0.2 ppm of aluminum, 0.3 ppm of iron and 0.05 ppm of manganese, with no reports of coliform or E.coli since the storm. 

While lead has been found at several local elementary schools through the testing, Asheville water officials stress the lead came from older pipes owned by private customers and not the reservoir. Bottled water is being provided for those schools, and filters are being installed to reduce lead while assessments of their plumbing can be conducted to locate sources of the lead exposure.