A new target date of March 1 has been set for the reopening of I-40 connecting Tennessee and North Carolina, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) announced Monday.
“We’re happy that we can open I-40 in a couple of weeks. That will help travel and commerce between North Carolina and Tennessee,” State Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins said (pictured above, left). “[W]e’ll continue working on the rest of the routes until we get those built, too – we’re here to the end.”
Portions of I-40’s eastbound lanes were washed away by flood waters when the Pigeon River rose to historic levels due to Hurricane Helene in late September.
NCDOT said two westbound lanes of the interstate will reopen on March 1 – one lane for each direction – from Exit 20 to Exit 15 for non-Helene construction and again from Exit 7 to the state line and about five miles into Tennessee.
The stretch reopening on March 1 will be open for standard-sized trucks, but no oversized loads, NCDOT said.
While the state transportation departments have been working to stabilize the 9-mile stretch of the gorge connecting the two states in order to open up enough space for vehicles to travel on one lane in each direction, the project has been delayed without a targeted completion date up until Monday when U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary Sean Duffy was on the ground to survey I-40’s damage.
During his visit to the area, Duffy announced that USDOT and U.S. Forest Service have partnered in their efforts to help USDOT obtain a “Special Use” permit to use rock from Forest Service land and extract construction materials from the local river in order to expedite I-40’s completion.
“I look forward to working with Secretary Duffy and our federal partners to ensure we have the resources we need to rebuild our infrastructure as quickly as possible,” North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (pictured above, right) said; adding, “And I am grateful for [Duffy’s] visit to shine a spotlight on western North Carolina. It is clear to me that he intends to help.”
The permit, according to USDOT, will allow NCDOT to “get construction materials from a nearby river, just 1 to 3 miles away, instead of transporting them from 20 to 50 miles away, a process that would have tripled both the cost and duration of the project.”
“This permit is a commonsense solution to reduce the time it would take to rebuild the highway and significantly cut down on costs,” USDOT said.
USDOT’s announcement comes weeks after President Donald Trump announced during his visit to western North Carolina that he would sign an executive order “slashing all red tape and bureaucratic barriers and permits to ensure the rapid reconstruction of the roads” damaged by Hurricane Helene.
Pointing to Trump’s guidance, Duffy said USDOT is committed to focusing on cutting through “burdensome barriers” to complete projects.
“President Trump directed me to build infrastructure faster, better, and more affordably…Too often, the federal government creates obstacles that slow recovery and drive up costs. This time, we’re cutting through those burdensome barriers to get the job done, ensuring USDOT’s full support for our state partner’s success every step of the way throughout this project,” Duffy said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
