Tennessee Transportation Department looks back at 6 months of repairs after Helene

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - For the Tennessee Department of Transportation, crews have been working on crunch-time for the last six months. The agency is hard at work getting roads and interstates back open across East Tennessee following Helene’s massive flooding.

The storm hit in September of last year. Since then, TDOT’s Mark Nagi said the state has been rushing to get storm-damaged important thoroughfares open again.

Related Coverage: TIMELINE: What happened when Helene hit East Tennessee?

“We had 49 sections of roadway that were closed, and that includes bridges that were destroyed,” Nagi said about the day Helene hit. “As we get to the six month anniversary, we have 43 of those sections back open. So a lot of progress has been made, but we still have a lot of work to do.” Since speaking with WVLT news, that number has jumped to 44 roadways.

TDOT recently celebrated I-40’s reopening, at least in part. The state has cleared one lane of the interstate on the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains. North Carolina crews have seen similar success, opening one lane of the interstate across the state line. That being said, Nagi told WVLT News that TDOT still has some concerns.

“You’re talking about approximately 11 to 12 miles of one lane in each direction going from Tennessee into North Carolina, for folks that are trying to get to and from those states,” Nagi said. “So we’re still recommending that folks use the alternate routes.”

That alternate route takes people from I-81 North to I-77 South into Virginia. From there, traffic heads down either I-81 North or I-26 East into North Carolina. It’s a roundabout way that’s plagued drivers — and the two states’ supply chains — for months.

With that in mind, Nagi said TDOT hopes to have more access to I-40 available soon.

“We’re anticipating having all of those lanes reopen by the end of this calendar year,” he said. “Keep in mind, though, on the North Carolina side, they also saw a lot of significant damage. There’s some spots that they saw more damage than we had in Tennessee, so I think that their timeline is a little bit longer.”

Previous Coverage: Part of I-40 between Tennessee and North Carolina officially reopens to traffic, NCDOT says

One difference between Tennessee’s and North Carolina’s situations, a mudslide across the border that’s added time to North Carolina’s operation. Nagi added that the closest thing to a setback Tennessee has seen is the scale of what needs to be done.

“I think that people don’t understand the scope of everything that’s taken place,” Nagi said. “We’re talking about areas all across Upper East Tennessee. You know there are spots in Unicoi County, Greene County, Washington County, all over that you still have these roads that are closed. And I know that folks want to have these places reopened, and we want them to be reopened as quickly as possible. But unfortunately, it does take some time.”

That being said, TDOT has been getting some help from the state and federal governments to speed up the process as much as possible.

“We’re extremely thankful for our relationships that we have with Federal Highway Administration, with our friends at the Tennessee State Legislature,” Nagi said. “We anticipate this is over $500 million in damage that went to Tennessee roads. Some of this money we were able to already get from the federal government early. It was able to allow us to get moving on these projects quicker than we typically have been able to.”

Looking ahead, Nagi said TDOT plans to keep trucking along.

“You’ll see more of these roadways and bridges reopen. It’s something that we’re looking so forward to,” Nagi said. “And I know the folks who live in these areas are looking extremely forward to that. So just more progress is going to be taking place in these months.”

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