All I-40 lanes finally set to reopen in the NC mountains after rock slide. Here’s when.

All four Interstate 40 lanes in the North Carolina mountains are scheduled to reopen before sunrise Wednesday after months of repair, state highway officials said Tuesday.

Drivers have endured detours and lane closures since the Feb. 22 rock slide initially closed both sides of the interstate near Tennessee, according to the NC Department of Transportation. Both sides of the highway remained closed for five days, then some lanes were reopened as work continued to stabilize the slide area.

The status of the lanes has changed several times since the rock slide, but this is the first time in three months all four lanes will be open.

Debris continued to fall the morning after the slide as engineers surveyed the area, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time. The rock slide was caused by heavy rain, according to the transportation department.

An estimated 27,000 cubic yards of debris fell in the westbound lanes, then spilled into the eastbound lanes, NCDOT officials said. It happened near the Harmon Den exit in Haywood County.

On Tuesday afternoon, a contractor was “wrapping up the final tasks” to reopen all the lanes, NCDOT officials wrote in an online update.

“In some ways it feels like a long time, but it really is amazing all that the crews have accomplished in 10 weeks,” Ted Adams, the NCDOT Division 14 construction engineer, wrote in Tuesday’s news release. “We are glad to see this project complete so drivers from all over the country can reach their destinations a little easier.”

In early April, the repair project “expanded to a wider area around the slide to help prevent future slides and interstate closures at that location in Haywood County,” officials said in a release. Workers installed rock anchors, hanging wire mesh and a retaining wall, all of the work together costing $2.35 million, according to the NCDOT.

“Crews have spent the last two weeks preparing for the reopening by pouring a new concrete median and resurfacing this stretch of highway,” according to the news release.

An unrelated, two-year project recently began to fix I-40 drainage, guard rails, road surface and pavement markings between mile marker 15 and Tennessee. As a result, drivers should expect brief lane closures Mondays through Thursdays along various stretches, according to NCDOT.