Interstate 26 bridge in Tennessee reopens after Hurricane Helene damage. One lane in each direction now open between mile markers 39 and 40. Temporary causeway constructed by TDOT. Heavy vehicles restricted. Federal funds used for repairs. Residents relieved by reopening, local traffic allowed.
Photo courtesy of TDOT
Interstate 26 reopened to traffic between North Carolina and Tennessee on Oct. 30, 2024.
A key section of Interstate 26 in East Tennessee's Unicoi County has reopened to vehicles just 33 days after catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Helene in Erwin caused the collapse of two parallel freeway bridges over the Nolichucky River.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) allowed traffic back onto the interstate on Oct. 30 after building a temporary causeway with single lanes going both ways. The freeway collapsed into the river in late September after Hurricane Helene caused flood waters to engulf the pair of north-south bridges.
TDOT constructed the temporary causeway using more than 5,000 tons of asphalt and 33,000 tons of rock.
One lane in each direction on I-26 is now open between mile markers 39 and 40. Additionally, TDOT said that while the entrance ramp from Jackson Love Highway to I-26 East and I-26 West will be open, the exit ramp from the interstate to Jackson Love is still closed.
The state agency told the News Sentinel that wide loads over 12 ft. in length are not allowed over the I-26 Nolichucky River bridge. Commercial traffic should keep using the detour route of I-81 and I-77 for the near future.
"Within hours, we were coming up with solutions. Within days we had the contract in place to be able to start the work you've seen here today," Butch Eley, deputy governor and commissioner of transportation of Tennessee, said at an Oct. 30 press conference. "Everybody here has been working day and night to get this road open and to get all of our roads open in this community."
While visiting East Tennessee and western North Carolina on Oct. 17, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced that plans were in place to restore one lane of traffic in each direction on I-26 and I-40 in the coming weeks.
He added that the federal government was providing Tennessee with $32 million of emergency highway aid, some of which went toward the repairs to I-26 in Unicoi County, according to Eley.
Earlier, another section of I-26 between the Tennessee-North Carolina state line and Exit 40 in Erwin reopened to local traffic on Oct. 10.
While the designated portion of the interstate is open for local traffic, that stretch is still closed to commercial vehicles and through traffic, TDOT Director Steve Borden said in an Oct. 9 video on X, formerly Twitter.
Additionally, I-40 in Cocke County is open to one lane of traffic in each direction within Tennessee for local traffic only, the Knoxville news source reported. The reopened roadway extends from mile marker 451 near the Tennessee-North Carolina border to mile marker 446 near Hartford Road at mile marker 447, noted Mark Nagi, a TDOT spokesperson.
But I-40 remains closed due to Helene causing the road to collapse in a particularly rugged region of western North Carolina along the Pigeon River.
Erwin Residents Look Forward to Normal Traffic Sometime Soon
The reopening of the rapidly-built I-26 bridge in Erwin has been a major source of relief for Unicoi County residents.
Before TDOT crews were able to restore the single bridge to allow for traffic, motorists traveling through the area detoured through the heart of Erwin, a small community of about 6,000 residents. As a result, the influx of cars and trucks sometimes doubled the drive time around town for area residents.
But, with overweight and extra-wide vehicles currently prohibited from using the I-26 causeway, they still must take the detour for the time being, TDOT said.
Interstate 26's reopening "was a big help," said Jeff Simmons, a deacon at Erwin's Riverview Baptist Church, in speaking with The Center Square.
"Just to get through town sometimes it'd take 20 minutes," he added. "It should have been a 10-minute drive. It was a lot of traffic in this little town, that's for sure."
Simmons is helping to rebuild the church, which had to be gutted due to the storm and lost a back portion of its building.
Interstate 26 is a major thoroughfare that runs from Charleston, S.C., northwest through Columbia, S.C., Asheville, N.C., and on to Kingsport, Tenn., just north of Erwin. Along its route, the freeway intersects with several other key Southeast interstates, including I-95, I-77, I-20, I-385, I-85, I-40, I-240 and I-81.
After coming ashore from the Gulf of Mexico in late September, Hurricane Helene roared across the west coast of Florida and north into Georgia. It weakened once it reached the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee on Sept. 26, but still caused heavy rain and flooding that led to 230 deaths in seven states and extensive damage to infrastructure across the region. Of that number, 101 fatalities were in North Carolina and 18 in Tennessee as of Nov. 1, according to The Center Square.
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