A new target date of March 1 has been set for the reopening of I-40 connecting Tennessee and North Carolina, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) announced Monday.
“We’re happy that we can open I-40 in a couple of weeks. That will help travel and commerce between North Carolina and Tennessee,” State Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins said (pictured above, left). “[W]e’ll continue working on the rest of the routes until we get those built, too – we’re here to the end.”
Portions of I-40’s eastbound lanes were washed away by flood waters when the Pigeon River rose to historic levels due to Hurricane Helene in late September.
NCDOT said two westbound lanes of the interstate will reopen on March 1 – one lane for each direction – from Exit 20 to Exit 15 for non-Helene construction and again from Exit 7 to the state line and about five miles into Tennessee.
