In the dozens of communities where bridges are still damaged, engineers with the North Carolina Department of Transportation have figured out a temporary fix: retired railroad cars.
In recent months, the narrow, one-way bridges – made from the flatbeds of old railcars – have become a fixture in Yancey County and other areas that lost bridges during Hurricane Helene.
One bridge along the Cane River in Yancey County helps around 100 residents of Little Creek Road reach their homes after the road and bridge slid into the river last year.
The state has installed more than 40 of these railcar bridges throughout the region. They cost about one-third of a normal temporary bridge and construction takes only a few days, making them a handy solution as the region faces years of road and bridge repairs that are totaled at more than $2.5 billion.
All told, Helene damaged and closed around 1,500 public roads statewide. The state has managed to reopen nearly all of them – with around 70 remaining either fully or partially closed. However, some of those repairs, like the railcar bridges, are only temporary fixes, Chris Deyton, an engineer with NCDOT, explained.
“We’re at the point where most of the temporary work is complete,” he said. “I think the biggest concern now is what the permanent repairs are going to be.”
This month, NCDOT kicks off several major construction projects, including a $291 million overhaul of 197-South and a $198 million repair of 19-West in Yancey County. There are also repairs slated for Rutherford, Henderson and Haywood counties. In total, Deyton estimated it will cost around $2.5 billion to repair everything in his seven-county division, which includes Buncombe, Burke, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Rutherford and Yancey.
While none of the roads and bridges are changing locations, Deyton said engineers are doing their best, within fiscal reason, to make infrastructure more resilient in future disasters. That means stabilizing steep slopes that make them vulnerable to washing out and calculating the new hydraulic flow of nearby creeks and rivers.
“We're never going to be able to fiscally build something that will withstand Helene because it was a 1,000 to 2,000 year storm,” he said. “But we are going to build for a greater standard than what you see.”
In addition to the public road repairs, an estimated 8,000 private roads, culverts and bridges were damaged from Helene. Since NCDOT only handles public roads, the state government set aside $175 million to pay for those repairs. The state is still working on finalizing contracts with engineering firms, which will facilitate repairs. Applications for the program are being accepted through the end of August.
