Share
State transportation officials say Monday was a good day for crews working to remove a huge rock slide from Interstate 40, and the job of hauling rocks away from the site could begin today or Wednesday.
But there is still no change in the longterm forecast of when I-40 will reopen to traffic between North Carolina and Tennessee.
The road remains closed in both directions, and it is not expected to reopen before the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays.
Jerry Higgins, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Transportation, said crews from contractor Phillips and Jordan and subcontractor Janod Construction were able to pull down a large amount of debris that had settled on the side of the mountain.
Higgins said about two-thirds of the original pile -- which was 60 feet wide, 20 feet thick, and 80 feet tall -- is now gone from the side of the mountain. It has been pulled down into the roadway, where trucks will haul the debris to a nearby U.S. Forest Service site. Higgins said the rock will be used on future DOT construction projects.
The rock slide happened early on the morning of Oct. 25, a few miles inside North Carolina near the Tennessee border.
