Engineers consider 2 strategies for NC rock slide

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Engineers are considering two strategies to begin removing rocks as large as a mobile home from Interstate 40 in western North Carolina near Tennessee.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reported one plan involves building an access road to the top of rock slide, a job that could take more than a week. The other uses a helicopter or crane to haul drilling equipment to the top, then uses the drills to bore holes for dynamite.

The slide occurred about 2 a.m. Sunday near the Tennessee line, closing I-40 in both directions.

Officials have estimated that workers could take up to three months clearing the interstate in a steep section of the rugged Pigeon River Gorge. They say the freeze and thaw of rainwater over decades likely caused two huge sections of rock to split.

Joel Setzer, regional engineer with the state Transportation Department, said he hoped to hear Monday how to proceed.

The general idea for the cleanup is to blast the debris from the top so that it falls down the sides of the slide area and not straight ahead across the eastbound lanes into the Pigeon River, Setzer said.

Once the slide area is stable, workers can start hauling away the debris.

The three-month timeline depends on good weather, Setzer said, and “aggressive work.“

The slide area was still unstable on Monday as cracks in rock above the interstate continued to widen. The slide is about 80 feet wide and just as massive as a 1997 slide that happened two miles to the west. That slide was more dirt than rock.

Traffic on the interstate has been detoured north using the new Interstate 26 into Tennessee, leaving tourism-dependent businesses in the far western counties worried.

“We are going to feel it,“ said Tammy Brown, marketing director for Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley, which attracts more than 100,000 visitors a season.

DOT spokesman Jerry Higgins said the highway department plans to put maps outlining the detour and the roads that are open in the region on the department’s Web site and in rest areas.

The slide didn’t mean much to tourism on Monday, officials said. Many leaf-season tourists are already here. But the closed interstate could become a serious problem for the economy in the months ahead.

The slide repairs will run right into the meat of the ski season. Cataloochee had been developing a strong market in the Knoxville and east Tennessee area, Brown said. I-40 east was the main travel route for those skiers.

“It is never a good time for this, and I am hopeful that DOT’s estimates are on the extremely cautious side,“ she said.