After Hurricane Helene's devastation in East Tennessee, extensive road and bridge repairs have been completed, with TDOT requesting federal aid for the $510 million project. Baker's Construction Services played a key role in rebuilding critical infrastructure, with U.S. 321 being the largest ongoing project. The last bridge project on Tenn. 353 is set to finish by May 2026.
Baker's Construction Services photo
After work on Tenn. 81 along the Nolichucky River.
Almost seven months after the remnants of Hurricane Helene roared through Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, causing billions of dollars in damage and claiming more than 100 lives between the two states, most major repair work has been finished in both states, particularly in Tennessee.
After its formation in the western Caribbean, the powerful Category 4 storm took aim on the southeast U.S., passing first through Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, before pounding the North Carolina-Tennessee border counties on Sept. 27, 2024.
Helene seemed to save its worst fury for the high-elevation Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee, where heavy rains ran off countless hills and peaks to engorge the area's innumerable rivers and streams, turning even dry creek beds into raging floodwaters that swept away everything in their paths, including vehicles, homes and people.
The storm also collapsed or damaged many roads and bridges — no matter how well they were built — leaving local residents and tourists stranded until the infrastructure could be repaired.
Since last fall's storm, though, most roads and bridges washed away in east Tennessee have been restored to reconnect vital supply routes, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT).
In fact, rebuilding efforts are continuing on the last few major state projects and interior roads in that part of Tennessee.
TDOT requested $510 million in federal assistance for its storm repairs and, by the end of March, had received $102 million, the agency noted.
The major projects that remain, including bridges over the Nolichucky River, should be completed in the next few months, although one will not be open until 2026.
Most tragic, of course, was that 18 Tennessee residents lost their lives as a result of Helene's impact.
Damage was even more horrific in neighboring western North Carolina, with the worst damage occurring in the greater Asheville area and other huge swaths of the Blue Ridge Mountains all the way north to Virginia. In all, approximately 105 people in the state died as a result of the storm.
East Tennessee Destruction Described as "Astounding"
In the hours after the hurricane's passage through the region, both TDOT and the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) began to quickly marshal various construction companies to the worst-hit areas to rebuild key roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
Among the building firms that were contacted by TDOT to make emergency repairs was Baker's Construction Services, a contractor in Bluff City, Tenn. that employs more than 100 people, the vast majority of whom make up its onsite crews.
Patrick Black serves as the company's director of digital marketing. Part of his job is to accompany its crews to various job sites to record aerial video of the work via a camera-mounted drone. He then posts his expertly-shot videos and photos onto YouTube and social media sites like Facebook to chronicle the company's efforts.
When asked what his impressions were when he first saw the hurricane's massive destruction, Black said the scale of damage was "astounding," and could only compare it to one other disaster he had witnessed.
"I was pretty up close and personal with some of the California wildfires that happened several years ago close to where I lived at the time," he recalled. "After evacuating and then coming back to see what was left, it was devastating to see places I knew that had been utterly destroyed."
Black said the hurricane damage he came upon in East Tennessee was reminiscent of the wildfires, only "100 times worse."
"There was a utility truck just lying in this shallow creek; it looked like a harmless little body of water but somehow it had grown powerful enough to take out this big truck," he noted. "Then I saw houses, buildings, barns and farmland that were just swept away. To see a state highway completely washed out was an incredible sight."
Just the day after the storm cut its path of destruction through the mountains, Baker's was brought in to be a subcontractor for Maymead Inc., a Mountain City, Tenn. highway builder, materials production and asphalt paving outfit that operates in the region.
"We worked with Maymead on U.S. Highway 421 in and around Mountain City," Black explained. "Maymead has rock quarries right off U.S. 421 where the damage was, so they provided all the stone and we did all the earthmoving, rebuilt all the washed out sections of the highway and shored up critically damaged areas.
Black added that Baker's "had another set of [Tennessee] state roads that we were working on where there were critical washout areas that needed shoring up with GSR [structural support] and other materials."
They included Tenn. Highway 167 along its approach to the state's rugged northern border with North Carolina. After crossing into the Tarheel State's Ashe County, the route is known as Big Laurel Road.
It also represented the only North Carolina repairs performed by Baker's Construction. By the end of October, the company had wrapped up all its work in the state.
Contractors Finished U.S. 421 Repairs in Less Than Three Months
At the very beginning of Baker's hurricane response, its crews focused squarely on performing emergency road repair.
On U.S. 421, the company teamed with the state transportation agency, Maymead and other subcontractors, Black said, "to figure out, based on TDOTs ever-evolving plans," the best way to rebuild eight sections of the highway that were damaged.
Baker's reconstruction of the road around Mountain City took, Black noted, "about 80 days to make sure the highway could open up paved and with new striping."
During November, the contractor also began repairs on two other TDOT projects where Baker's was the prime contractor: U.S. 321 from the town of Butler south to Elk Mills, then east to North Carolina; and Tenn. 81 between Jonesborough and Erwin.
"The only bridge that we have worked on was in Elk Mills along U.S. 321 where we poured new concrete to shore up one end of the damaged structure. That was a pretty recent job," according to Black. "Other than that, most of our stuff has been earthmoving, moving stone into place, and rebuilding subgrade."
Baker's also built a temporary road that led into the Riverview Industrial Park in the Unicoi County town of Erwin, where mass flooding from the nearby Nolichucky River caused tremendous damage and multiple casualties.
That community, along with the greater Asheville, N.C. area, received the most national attention as a result of hurricane's rampage. Impact Plastics, a company located on the downstream side of the Erwin business complex, lost six of its employees when they drowned trying to escape the floodwaters.
"We were told by city officials that we were needed to stabilize the flood-soaked ground and put in a road that the park's businesses can use to come in and start recovery from the flood damage," Black explained. "It was the only other work in Tennessee we did that was not a state project."
The rest of Baker's efforts have been reconstructions from start to finish, he added.
"We completed our [State Road] 81 job two months early, which involved rebuilding about 1,200 feet of total washout on a portion of the highway right next to the Nolichucky River. Our crews went in, stripped out the old material, built it back and had it paved."
To illustrate the amount of earthmoving and concrete that Baker's handled on its two completed projects along U.S. 421 and Tenn. 81, Black noted that at the first roadway site, "somewhere around 160,000 tons of materials was used, mostly the GSR, and that's a lot of truckloads coming in and out of the work zones.
"For Tenn. 81 in Erwin, it was somewhere between 30,000 to 50,000 tons of rock."
U.S. Highway 321 is Baker's Largest Storm Repair Project
Currently, the only hurricane-related work being carried out by Baker's is on U.S. 321, one of only five infrastructure projects left to be rebuilt by TDOT and its construction partners.
The 24-mi.-long stretch of highway being repaired runs from Tenn. 67 near the town of Butler to U.S. 421 in North Carolina and will not be fully open until Labor Day weekend, according to Mark Nagi, TDOT's regional communications officer. If it is completed by then, he said, the full reopening would be just a few weeks before the first anniversary of the Helene disaster.
The current road closure is on the Tennessee side from Montgomery Road to Poga Road in the Elk Mills community.
Nagi said other aspects of Baker's U.S. 321 project include establishing and maintaining traffic control, erosion protection and sediment control measures, pipe extensions and repairs, grade work, construction of rock buttresses to repair washout areas and paving operations.
"I think the largest of our projects is going to end up being U.S. 321 because there are five separate sections for us to work on," Black noted. "While SR 81 was one continuous washout, U.S. 321 has multiple areas like that, including the large retaining wall with the MSE [mechanically stabilized earth] system that can be seen on the drone video I made."
Baker's also conducted blasting on U.S. 321 because, he said, "the first thing to do in that bad washout area was to strip out all the unusable soil down to the bedrock" due to so many little springs located there.
"And in the places where the water needed to drain down, we ended up blasting to create enough room for not only the wall system to be installed but also to put in large drainage boxes where those springs feed," Black explained. "On both U.S. 321 and SR 81, there was spring water flowing to one side of the highways right where they washed out. That means it's important that this construction provides the proper drainage so that water does not undermine either road."
Builder Worked Through Cold, Snow, Numerous Design Changes
As its road repairs progressed through November, the major challenge ahead for Baker's and its crew members was the usually harsh winter weather that was certain to descend on its work sites high in the Appalachians.
"It was a challenge but, luckily, we didn't have a really wet winter — just cold — and our guys really plowed through," according to Black. "A lot of the work our people were doing wasn't really interfered with; only when we had heavy snow did we have to stop working. For the most part, it was still possible for the crew to dump rock into place and compact the material."
At the start of the U.S. 421 road repairs, when TDOT and its contractors were in a rapid-response mode, he said, Baker's also had to deal with a constant, sometimes headache-inducing stream of design changes.
"TDOT was working on the fly to change things as new challenges came up and solutions were needed quickly. In contrast, the work on SR 81 and U.S. 321 had a more consistent flow and, aside from the weather, everything else went fine."
Black admitted, though, that a spate of infrastructure design changes is fairly common for any disaster recovery effort.
"It was surprising to me that any of the reconstruction was done so quickly, considering the amount of storm damage that was present," he added. "The mere fact that they can figure out a design, get it to us so rapidly and we are able to make changes as we go along is amazing."
Part of Baker's success in performing its road repairs so expertly is due to its veteran crews.
"Every one of our project superintendents have been around for a long time," explained Black. "We also had some newer guys working on these repairs and rebuilds, so it has been a good mix. In addition, our survey crew utilizes GPS data and flight surveys that we use with topographical information and LIDAR, meaning we have some of the best technology available to make sure we're getting accurate results."
During its work to repair the region's roads and highways, he said that Baker's used its Cat earthmoving equipment, including D6s and excavators, to push rock and dirt, as well as the contractor's rollers, compactors and compact skid steers to place some of the select backfill.
Black added that about 90 percent of its equipment is manufactured by Cat and supplied to Baker's by Knoxville-based Stowers Cat. The full-service dealership also provides Baker's with its expert technical and parts support.
Four More Tennessee Highway Bridges Left to Complete
Besides the U.S. 321 road repairs that Baker's is still working on, the remaining four projects being shepherded by TDOT all involve replacing or repairing bridges, according to the state agency.
They include:
• In Carter County, Tenn. 67/91 is closed at the Doe River Bridge. It is slated to open on May 31 (Memorial Day).
• Tennessee Highway 107 in Greene County also is shut down at the Nolichucky River Bridge where beam placement is ongoing. TDOT expects the structure to reopen to traffic around June 23.
• Another Nolichucky River bridge along Tenn. 81 in Washington County is getting a beam placement, as well and also is set to open in late June.
• Nearby, Washington County's Tenn. 353 bridge over the Nolichucky has remained closed since the storm. Nagi added that the work there has only recently gotten started and will be the state's "last project to be completed." He estimated it will reopen on May 22, 2026.
Eric Olson
A writer and contributing editor for CEG since 2008, Eric Olson has worked in the news-gathering business for 45 years.
Olson grew up in the small town of Lenoir, N.C. in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he began covering sports for the local newspaper at age 18. He continued to do that for several other dailies in the area while in college at Appalachian State University. Following his graduation, he worked for, among other companies, the Winston-Salem Journal, where he wrote and edited the newspaper's real estate and special features sections for 10 years. Since 1999 he has worked as a corporate media liaison and freelance writer, in addition to his time at CEG.
He and his wife, Tara, have been happily married for almost 40 years and are the parents of two grown and successful daughters. He currently is in the employ of two dogs and three cats, a job that he dearly loves.
Read more from Eric Olson here.
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