Key North Carolina, Tennessee interstate bridge reopens after Helene damage

Interstate 26, a key crossing for drivers near the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, has reopened to the relief of Unicoi County residents.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation reopened the interstate on Wednesday after building a temporary causeway with single lanes going both ways. I-26 collapsed into the Nolichucky River in September after Hurricane Helene caused flood waters to engulf the interstate bridges going each way.

Interstate 40, another key border crossing between the states, remains closed due to road collapse.

Before I-26 reopened, motorists going through the area detoured through Erwin, a town of about 6,000, sometimes doubling drive time around town for locals. Overweight vehicles and vehicles wider than 10 feet are prohibited from using the causeway and must still take the detour, TDOT said.

I-26 reopening "was a big help,” Jeff Simmons, a deacon at Riverview Baptist Church, which is in view of the I-26 bridges that collapsed, told The Center Square. “Just to get through town sometimes it’d take 20 minutes [when] it should have been a 10-minute drive.”

“It was a lot of traffic in this little town, that’s for sure,” he said. Simmons is helping rebuild the church, which had to be gutted and lost a back portion of its building.

TDOT constructed the temporary causeway in just over a month using over 5,000 tons of asphalt and 33,000 tons of rock.

“This is about making sure that our people in this community and those around are able to access the basic needs that they’re trying to get to,” TDOT Commissioner Butch Eley said.

Construction was done in 33 days, a project that would typically have taken months, according to Eley.

Hurricane Helene weakened once it reached the mountains in western North Carolina and Tennessee, but still caused heavy rains and flooding that led to 229 deaths in seven states and extensive damage to infrastructure across the region. As of Nov. 1, 101 people were killed in North Carolina and 17 in Tennessee.

Lawmakers from several states including North Carolina and Tennessee have asked Congress to provide funding for agricultural disaster assistance, The Center Square previously reported.