The project to repair the eastbound lanes of I-40 washed away in Haywood County during Hurricane Helene is progressing on-time, but the heavy lift has really just begun. When Helene tore through Western North Carolina in 2024, it inundated the embankment supporting the highway so vital to interstate commerce, washing away about a million cubic yards of rock and dropping the eastbound lanes into the water below.
It was a miracle no lives were lost on that stretch during Helene, but it did leave the state with a lengthy, expensive repair that would require innovative techniques never deployed in a state highway project.
When determining the best design for what has become the biggest project in NCDOT history, hydrologists performed a detailed analysis of not only how high the river peaked but also its flow rate. The magnitude of the flow is the concern in this case and not how high the water goes…