The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) expects to spend close to $5 billion repairing and rebuilding roads and bridges damaged by the remnants of Hurricane Helene as it roared across the western part of the state in the early fall of 2024.
More than two-thirds of that money, totaling approximately $3.2 billion, will be spent on eight rebuilding projects, according to estimates released by the state agency in early December. They include one section of interstate and seven rural two-lane highways and nearby secondary roads that were largely obliterated by floodwaters and landslides.
Most of the roads have been repaired enough to allow for the passage of local traffic, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. Final reconstruction work is either under way or will begin soon.
The most challenging and costliest project involves rebuilding 4 mi. of eastbound Interstate 40, much of which fell into the Pigeon River near the Tennessee state line. NCDOT contractors will soon begin mining stone from the nearby Pisgah National Forest to restore the missing roadbed and build a concrete retaining wall up to 70 ft. tall.
That work is expected to cost $1.3 billion and take until the end of 2028 to complete.
Of the remaining seven projects, four are in the rugged mountains of rural Yancey and Mitchell counties northeast of Asheville; the three other roads converge in the small community of Bat Cave near Chimney Rock. Together, they are expected to cost $1.9 billion.
Included among the roadway repairs in those areas are:
• Fourteen miles of U.S. Highway 19W North and seven bridges along the Cane River. The estimated cost of the work is $452 million and the effort is projected to be completed in the fall of 2027.
• U.S. 19W South, where 10 mi. of roadway and 10 bridges along the Cane River were heavily damaged. The price tag for that reconstruction is estimated at $350 million and it has an approximate completion date set for mid-2028.
• N.C. Highway 197 South, 30 mi. of road with 11 bridges along the Cane River south of Burnsville. The projected cost is $300 million and the work is due to be finished in the third quarter of 2027.
• N.C. 197 North, 18 mi. of highway with 7 bridges along the Toe and Nolichucky rivers north of Burnsville. The cost is projected to be $345 million, and its completion is slated for the spring of 2028.
• U.S. 64/74A between Bat Cave and Chimney Rock, stretching over 2.6 mi. of roadway alongside the Rocky Broad River. NCDOT puts the cost of rebuilding the two-lane highway at $286 million and has forecast that it will be finished in the fall of 2028.
• U.S. 74A between Bat Cave and Gerton, 2.6 mi. of roadway with one bridge. It is likely to cost $126 million to reconstruct and should wrap up during the summer months of 2027.
• U.S. 64, west of Bat Cave along 2.3 mi. of roadway, will be repaired at a cost of $46.5 million and opened to traffic next fall.
More than 1,500 roads were fully or partially closed after Helene dumped historic amounts of rain on the state's Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains in late September 2024. As of Dec. 8, NCDOT and its contractors have fully reopened all but 34 of them.
The state agency has spent more than $1.2 billion so far, mostly to repair damaged roads so that residents in the area can access them. The department said its crews have repaired 7,309 damage sites, including 585 bridges and more than 1,600 culverts.
But the bulk of the work lies ahead, as NCDOT and its contractors rebuild roads to current highway standards and try to make them less susceptible to future floods.
When Helene struck western North Carolina, it became both the state's most destructive storm and its deadliest, as it claimed 108 lives and left behind billions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses, natural attractions, roads and bridges.
Prior to last year, NCDOT had never experienced anything like Helene, the News & Observer noted. The $5 billion it expects to spend rebuilding the road system is more than five times the cost of all previous storms combined since 2016, which includes two other hurricanes, Matthew and Florence, which devastated the eastern part of the state.
NCDOT is counting on the federal government to cover at least 80 percent of those costs. So far, the department has received $152 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and about $200 million from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), with more support pledged.
FEMA's Total Helene Funding to N.C. Surpasses $1 Billion
On Dec. 8, FEMA announced an additional $33 million in funding to cover the costs of 44 more Helene recovery projects in western North Carolina.
The new money brings FEMA's total to more than $1 billion in public assistance grants to communities in the region. This latest grant is in addition to more than $2 billion in FEMA funding for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mission assignments supporting statewide debris clearance.
The following are some of the notable FEMA grants obligated to the state and its communities:
• The city of Asheville received $10.7 million for multiple projects including permanent repairs to the Bee Tree Dam and emergency protective measures taken by the city's Water Resources Department.
• NCDOT was awarded $7.4 million for road repairs across Alleghany, Avery, Buncombe, Caldwell and McDowell counties.
• Avery County was funded $3.4 million for repairs to its senior center and administrative building.
• The Town of Beech Mountain, the highest community east of the Rocky Mountains at 5,506 ft. above sea level, was awarded $1.6 million for emergency protective measures taken following Helene, including temporary power to the emergency operations and mass distribution centers.
• To the south, the town of Spruce Pine got $1.2 million to make much-needed repairs to its water and wastewater distribution systems.
• North Carolina Emergency Management, a division of the state's Department of Public Safety, was granted $1 million for additional reimbursements for emergency protective measures, including activation for the state's emergency response center and critical life-saving public information.
FEMA is reimbursing Helene costs at no less than a 90 percent federal share, an enhanced level of support reserved for the most significant disasters, through its Public Assistance program. It provides funds for state and local governmental response and recovery work.
