To be honest, it doesn't look that bad, not a great photo of it however ...
Posted on 10/27/2009 6:12:35 AM PDT by Rebelbase
AP article, no text.
A huge rock slide has closed I-40 in both directions at the NC/TN line. The clean up is going to take months.
Traffic is being re-routed via I-81 to I-26, Johnson City, TN to Asheville,NC.
Politics put the road where it is today. The natural route through the mountains is along the French Broad river 30 miles west.
3rd world traffic for that route for a while. Get your mules packed.
I’ve taken that pass several times. Scary in the winter, especially Sam’s Gap. This is going to wreak havoc on the commute, truckers, etc.
Yes, I remember it from vacation last year. Driving from the Biltmore over to the Tennessee side of the Smokies. I rememeber it being white-knuckle driving with all of the curves and 18-wheelers with very little room and it was drizzling.
I had planned to use that segment of I-40 next week for a trip out to La and Ok. Glad I wasn’t on the road when it happened. The proposed detour isn’t the only route available, it’s just the one that keeps you on the Interstate. We’re planning a different way now with a drive through the mountains on 2 lane roads. It won’t be quick but it beats going around your elbow to get to your nose just for the sake of staying on the Interstate.
ouch.. took that route many times when I lived in NC & commuted to grad school..
What that photo doesn’t show is the 100’ of rock above it. The lengthy time factor is in the work it takes to stabilize the mt. after the clean up.
Almost looks like nothing that cannot be handled with controlled demolition charges and a fleet of big CAT loaders.
And I'm going to be there in, probably, two weeks or so.
Obama’s fault.
There is another route, through the mountains, down the river gorge. Very beautiful, but not interstate.
I trundle back and forth on this route all the time between my current residence in Greensboro, NC and my family in Chattanooga, TN. I’ve been doing it for years now. I actually am pretty blase about that strip of road, but white knuckled it for a long time.
It sounds like you really understand this well. My husband and I drove through there a week and a half ago on our way to visit family in Charleston. It was raining when we left and there was snow on the mountain tops as we returned.
This past year I’ve made the trip a couple of times between Pigeon Forge and Carowinds (theme park trips). Once I used 441 to get through the Smoky Mountains, and once I used 40. If I were going again, I’d probably use 441.
I remember flying through that section, coming from North Carolina into Tennessee. I think I took that exit right after getting into Tennessee, to cut through the mountains over to Gatlinburg.
Fortunately, when I go down in December, I’m not including Carowinds, so I’ll be strictly I-81 to I-40;
Maybe they’ll have it clear by Christmas.
The report said they closed the NC side at exit 20. I guess that’s to discourage people from going to exit 7 and taking the forest service road 288 over the border to exit 251 (the last exit open on the Tennessee side).
However, I’d be upset if I lived off of exist 15 or 7 on the NC side, since it’s rather hard to get around, and there’s no reason to have them closed since the slide is at around mile 3.
Maybe they’ll set up something for local traffic only.
I drove it once, and I noticed a lot of people not going very fast. I kept having to slow down to 65 or so. :-)
I did enjoy that section or road, it kept me awake.
shovel ready project.....
He did promise jobs......
;-)
From !908 to 1914 the U.S. bulit a 48 mile long canal through a jungle while preparing to fight a World War. The project faced malaria and yellow fever. It was all completed with steam power and picks and shovels. Now a rock slide has closed the major southern Interstate. It will take four months to reopen the gorge. It will probably cost the economy a billion dollars. The difference between then and now: bureaucracy and lawyers. Here in western NC we have an abundance of “old growth” timber and an endless supply of Mexicans, you would think we could build a temporary by-pass.
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