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I-40's Rocky Past: Interstate through Haywood County has long history of slide-blocked travel
AP File Photo
Work begins on the slide that closed Interstate 40 in Haywood County last month. The cleanup will last three months.
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Published: November 7, 2009
WAYNESVILLE
Rock slides that block travel between Haywood and Newport, Tenn., have plagued Interstate 40 since it first opened in October 1968.
Just four months after the dedication of the highway, known early on as the Pigeon River Road, a blockage occurred in February 1969 when a slide stopped traffic on all four lanes of the road.
The area near the access road to Waterville Dam was grouted, rock was drilled and dynamited and then filled with liquid concrete to stop the earth movement. It was the first of many actions that would be taken through the years to stabilize an area that engineers had long warned would pose problems in the future.
In 1974, the pavement again started showing signs of movement, and it wasn't unusual for smaller slides to cause periodic delays.
I-40 was closed for two weeks in March 1977 after about 40,000 tons of rock slid onto the road about two miles inside the Tennessee state line. At the time, a state geologist noted that the area was the site of a major fault, with mostly coarse rock that could easily fracture and slide. News reports at the time said that geologists were trying to determine if there was one big slide or two separate ones in the area.
In May 1978, a major slide led to a wreck in which seven people were inured; it closed the eastbound lanes of I-40 near the Fines Creek exit.
The $1 million repair job included work on the cut to prevent future slides and stop slippage of a rock bank near the exit. Two-way traffic was maintained in the westbound lanes during the work, and three people were killed in a head-on collision while slide repairs were being done.
A slide in February 1981, about a half-mile east of the Tennessee line, covered both the eastbound and westbound lanes with boulders, dirt and trees.
The frequent slides made it apparent that a longer-term solution was called for, and the N.C. Department of Transportation announced plans to rebuild four miles of interstate through Haywood County near the Tennessee line to reduce the danger of rock slides.
The first phase of the project would shift two lanes of traffic away from the mountainside and toward the Pigeon River, according to an article in May 20, 1981, edition of The Mountaineer.
The second phase would remove loose rocks from slopes and install wire mesh to catch the rocks before they hit the highway.
In the fall of 1981, a DOT report projected that $10.3 million -- three times the $1.5-million-a-mile cost to build the roadway -- would be needed to reduce the danger of rock slides near the Tennessee line.
That amount would be enough to correct problems at five potential slide areas, state officials said, but even with the work, there was no way to stabilize cut slopes entirely.
Before a final contract was reached for the work, a slide in March 1982 buried the westbound lanes near the Tennessee line.
The project continued into 1984. It included shifting three miles away from the rock slopes and toward the Pigeon River, as well as bolting rocks too large to remove in the five problem areas identified as most susceptible to slides. The project included a chain-link fence to prevent smaller boulders from falling onto the driving lanes.
In March 1985, a huge slide blocked both tunnel entrances. The repair cost about $6 million and took nearly a year to clean up.
In July 1997, a huge slide again closed the interstate, taking six months and $2.5 million to clean up.
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