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The slide and flood happened Wednesday afternoon around mile
marker 450 in Tennessee, just to the west of the state line with
North Carolina, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said
on social media.
Engineers have found significant damage on both the highway and
nearby ramps which was more extensive than originally thought,
Republican Tennessee Rep. Jeremy Faison said on social media.
“Several areas remain under water, and there are potentially
compromised slopes. Geotechnical engineers are on-site today to
assess the stability of those slopes,” wrote Faison, who
represents the area.
Tennessee transportation officials estimate it will take at
least two weeks to drain the water, make sure the slopes are
safe and repair the highway.
The damaged section is part of 12 miles (19 kilometers) of I-40
in North Carolina and Tennessee that was washed away or heavily
damaged by flooding that roared through the Pigeon River gorge
during Hurricane Helene in late September.
Crews repaired and shored up enough of the old highway to open
one narrow lane in each direction in March.
The lanes are separated by a curb several inches high that had
to be removed to let vehicles stuck by the flooding and
rockslide to turn around and go the other way.
About 2.5 to 3.5 inches (63 mm to 89 mm) of rain fell in the
area over about three hours, according to the National Weather
Service.
The permanent fix to stabilize what’s left of the road will
involve driving long steel rods into bedrock below the road,
filling them with grout and spraying concrete on the cliff face
to hold them in place. It will take years.
I-40 runs from Wilmington. North Carolina to Barstow,
California, and any detour around the Great Smoky Mountain
section is dozens of miles. Trucks have gotten stuck on twisty
narrow mountain roads and are banned on another major highway
through the area U.S. 441 through Great Smoky Mountains National
Park.
The official detour takes drivers heading east on I-40 up
Interstate 26 at Asheville, North Carolina, to Johnson City,
Tennessee, and then south down Interstate 81 back to I-40.
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