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I-26

Started by mightyace, August 29, 2009, 10:05:32 PM

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Plutonic Panda

They need to build the road higher. It's funny how it looks like that little road crossing it made it.


Bitmapped

Quote from: Plutonic Panda on September 28, 2024, 09:09:23 PMThey need to build the road higher. It's funny how it looks like that little road crossing it made it.

The height of the bridges wasn't necessarily the problem here. It looks like the Nolichucky River eroded around the abutments of the I-26 bridges and tried to straighten itself out at a bend. The smaller Jackson Love Highway bridge crosses the river at close to a 90-degree angle on a straighter section and wasn't subject to the same forces from the river.

BlueRidge

Quote from: Bitmapped on September 28, 2024, 09:50:23 PM
Quote from: Plutonic Panda on September 28, 2024, 09:09:23 PMThey need to build the road higher. It's funny how it looks like that little road crossing it made it.
The height of the bridges wasn't necessarily the problem here. It looks like the Nolichucky River eroded around the abutments of the I-26 bridges and tried to straighten itself out at a bend. The smaller Jackson Love Highway bridge crosses the river at close to a 90-degree angle on a straighter section and wasn't subject to the same forces from the river.

Also consider the estimated crest (~30 ft) was approximately 125% of the record high (~24 ft), and the record occurred prior to construction of the freeway.

Henry

With Helene doing major damage to I-26 and I-40, does this mean that the planned upgrades north of Asheville (including the new connector) will be pushed back indefinitely?
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LilianaUwU

Quote from: Henry on October 04, 2024, 11:14:29 PMWith Helene doing major damage to I-26 and I-40, does this mean that the planned upgrades north of Asheville (including the new connector) will be pushed back indefinitely?
Weren't they already pushed back indefinitely?
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Thing 342

Given its proximity to the French Broad River, I'm surprised that stretch of 26 didn't sustain more major damage.

The Ghostbuster

In response to Henry's question, I would say most definitely! I think the Interstate 26 upgrades should have been built well before now, but now it's going to take even longer.

Plutonic Panda

Quote from: LilianaUwU on October 04, 2024, 11:51:56 PM
Quote from: Henry on October 04, 2024, 11:14:29 PMWith Helene doing major damage to I-26 and I-40, does this mean that the planned upgrades north of Asheville (including the new connector) will be pushed back indefinitely?
Weren't they already pushed back indefinitely?
I believe so and scaled back. IIRC NC was already facing serious budget issues for their planned projects.

vdeane

Quote from: LilianaUwU on October 04, 2024, 11:51:56 PM
Quote from: Henry on October 04, 2024, 11:14:29 PMWith Helene doing major damage to I-26 and I-40, does this mean that the planned upgrades north of Asheville (including the new connector) will be pushed back indefinitely?
Weren't they already pushed back indefinitely?
They seem to think that signing it with interstate shields where the word "interstate" is replaced with "future" is all they need to do for I-26 to be continuous.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

Chris

I'm wondering what the status of the expansion project between Asheville and Hendersonville is, NCDOT's website listed completion in 'summer 2024'. Was this project impacted by Hurricane Helene or was it pretty much completed?

https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/i-26-widening/Pages/default.aspx

I-55

Quote from: Chris on October 10, 2024, 09:25:59 AMI'm wondering what the status of the expansion project between Asheville and Hendersonville is, NCDOT's website listed completion in 'summer 2024'. Was this project impacted by Hurricane Helene or was it pretty much completed?

https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/i-26-widening/Pages/default.aspx

This project was going to finish well behind schedule regardless of whether a big hurricane came or not. Much of the traffic was still on asphalt pavement as recent as April of this year so there was still plenty to do last time I went through
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cowboy_wilhelm

There was flooding near the weigh station and lots of trees down, but I'm not aware of any major damage. NCDOT pulled contractors off of active construction sites to assist with emergency road repairs, but it looks like some are returning to their projects.



The widening is pretty close to completion between Exit 37 (Long Shoals Rd.) and Exit 49 (U.S. 64/Four Seasons). The dates have moved several times, but the last one I remember reading was that the Henderson County contract was supposed to have lanes open in October. That's not happening now, but maybe by the end of the year. The Buncombe County contract is more complicated since they've added the new interchange between Brevard Rd. and Long Shoals. Traffic is still on temporary asphalt from around MM 33.5 - 36.0/BRP overpass, but it looks like it's about ready for a shift to the new westbound lanes from MM 35 west for the eastbound rebuild. The last date I saw on that section is sometime in 2026, but that date may include completion of the new connector road.

You can view NOAA's post-storm aerial imagery to get a recent update throughout the project limits.

https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/helene/index.html#16.7/35.507087/-82.573127

cowboy_wilhelm

Two contracts have been let for the connector, including the big one for the new bridges across the French Broad River. I imagine it would take a lot of legal wrangling to get out of a signed contract and would result in a big payout for the contractor that lost the work. The project is also in an "optimization and refinement" phase to get the cost down, so the legal framework may already be there to cancel the project. Pretty sure the contract mentioned the contractor would still get a payment if they failed to get costs down.

Funding for the next section to widen the rest of I-240 in between will probably be delayed, along with who knows what else in the region and across the state (looking at you, I-85 in Gaston County). There are miles and miles of roads just completely gone, plus numerous bridges. I would not be surprised if the highway dollar damages from Helene are greater than Matthew and Florence combined. I think NCDOT is supposed to have a pretty large emergency fund set aside now (required by the legislature) due to the previous storms, but we'll have to wait and see once everyone has had a chance to dig out and finish assessing.

rickmastfan67

Great news for I-26 drivers.  TDOT looks like they'll be re-opening I-26 to thru traffic by Thanksgiving where the bridges got damaged.

They've re-stabilized the WB(NB) bridge and filled in the gap that was left after all the flooding.

Will re-open it with 1 lane in each direction when they do this.  This will make the I-40 detour a lot shorter, and also help with the area's recovery a lot having this main highway back open!


rickmastfan67

#89
I-26 is now BACK OPEN in TN!  1-lane each way, but it is open!!

Major props to TDOT for getting it back open once again!



CtrlAltDel

#90
Here's a picture of how they did it:


Presumably, the bridge in the other direction will be replaced, and then this temporary causeway will be replaced as well.
I-290   I-294   I-55   (I-74)   (I-72)   I-40   I-30   US-59   US-190   TX-30   TX-6

cowboy_wilhelm

I'm not sure how long ago this was posted, but the following was added to the NCDOT project page for the I-26 connector:


Strider

It looks like it may be posted not long ago... like a few days ago after they surveyed the damage from Helene.

PColumbus73

Are they limiting I-26 to local traffic, or is that going to become the primary freight / I-40 detour through the area?

wriddle082

Quote from: PColumbus73 on November 04, 2024, 09:12:48 AMAre they limiting I-26 to local traffic, or is that going to become the primary freight / I-40 detour through the area?

It is the primary detour for now.  Only oversized loads are prohibited due to the current width restrictions at the crossing.

wriddle082

The I-26 widening construction NW of Columbia is starting to wrap up.  All new lanes are now open.  Six lanes from Exit 85 to Exit 97, and eight lanes from Exit 97 to Exit 101.

https://info2.scdot.org/SCDOTPress/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=3842

This does create a slight bottleneck as it's only six through lanes from Exit 101 to I-20 (Exit 107), but that will eventually be remedied in one of the later phases of the larger Carolina Crossroads project.



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