CHARLOTTE, N.C. — U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says it could take billions of dollars and months or even years to fully repair a stretch of Interstate 40 in western North Carolina that collapsed during Hurricane Helene.
Buttigieg was joined by Gov. Roy Cooper and NCDOT Transport Secretary Joey Hopkins for a tour of I-40 in western North Carolina near the Tennessee state line. A section of eastbound I-40 fell into the Pigeon River during Helene's torrential rain. Meanwhile, crews are working on a temporary solution to stabilize the westbound lanes so traffic can flow to and from Asheville. A separate section of I-40 in east Tennessee also collapsed during the storm, causing officials to close 40 miles of the road from exit 432 in Tennessee to exit 20 in North Carolina.
Buttigieg said an $8 million contract was approved to begin the stabilization of the slope that collapsed into the Pigeon River. He echoed Cooper's comments of building back stronger with infrastructure that can withstand the destruction of another disaster like Helene. WFMY reported the goal is to stabilize the westbound lanes by January 2025.
"It will take billions of dollars and months, if not years," Buttigieg said. "We will not rest until that 'normal' is available for people these communities who had their lives upended."
Buttigieg also vowed that federal agencies are going to be in western North Carolina as long as it takes to recover from Helene's devastation.
"We want everybody in the impacted communities to know that we are in it for the long haul," he said. "There's an entire family of federal agencies here to keep President Biden's promise that we're here every step of the way."
Hopkins said NCDOT received approximately 500 reports of damaged bridges statewide. Of those, around 100 will have to be replaced. He said the state is considering numerous factors when prioritizing repairs, including volume of traffic and accessibility to communities impacted by Helene.
"Not rebuilding is not an option," Hopkins said. "We will rebuild, the question is how."
As for how I-40 is replaced, Buttigieg says it's still too early to know what that looks like. He stressed having an open mind about the future of the highway.
"Frankly, we don't yet know the right answer," he said. "We don't know if the right answer will be to restore things to how they were before or if a different alignment will be the responsible way forward. We have to have an open mind."
He said repairs to I-40 will be dictated by safety and led by engineering. The federal government has approved $100 million in emergency funding for road restoration in North Carolina, but a timeline for when the highway will be fully reopened remains unclear.
"Our role is to ensure funding isn't a barrier to finding the answer," Buttigieg said. "It's one thing to see a photo, it's another to stand here and look at the shocking, destructive power of the storm. It's almost impossible to think water and wind alone could have torn apart rock, asphalt and the literal ground where we're standing."