NCDOT will spend $5 billion on Helene. Most of that money will go to 8 projects.

News & Observer | 12.08.2025

The N.C. Department of Transportation expects to spend close to $5 billion repairing and rebuilding roads and bridges damaged by the remnants of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina.

More than two-thirds of that money, about $3.2 billion, will be spent on eight rebuilding projects, according to estimates released last week. They include one section of interstate and seven rural two-lane highways and nearby secondary roads that were largely obliterated by floodwaters and landslides.

Most of the roads have been repaired enough to allow at least local traffic. Final reconstruction work is either underway or will begin soon.

The most challenging and costliest project involves rebuilding four miles of eastbound Interstate 40, much of which fell into the Pigeon River near the Tennessee state line. NCDOT contractors will soon begin mining stone from Pisgah National Forest to restore the missing roadbed and build a concrete retaining wall as tall as 70 feet. That work is expected to cost $1.3 billion and take until the end of 2028 to complete.

Of the remaining seven projects, four are in rural Yancey and Mitchell counties northeast of Asheville; the three other roads converge on Bat Cave near Chimney Rock. Together, they’re expected to cost $1.9 billion. They are:

U.S. 19W North, 14 miles of roadway with seven bridges along the Cane River. Estimated cost: $452 million. Completion: Fall 2027.

U.S. 19W South, 10 miles of roadway with 10 bridges along the Cane River. Estimated cost: $350 million. Completion: Summer 2028.

N.C. 197 South, 30 miles of roadway with 11 bridges along the Cane River south of Burnsville. Estimated cost: $300 million. Completion: Fall 2027.

N.C. 197 North, 18 miles of roadway with seven bridges along the Toe and Nolichucky rivers north of Burnsville. Estimated cost: $345 million. Completion: Spring 2028.

U.S. 64/74A between Bat Cave and Chimney Rock, 2.6 miles of roadway along the Rocky Broad River. Estimated cost: $286 million. Completion: Fall 2028.

U.S. 74A between Bat Cave and Gerton, 2.6 miles of roadway with one bridge. Estimated cost: $126 million. Completion: Summer 2027.

U.S. 64 west of Bat Cave, 2.3 miles of roadway. Estimated cost: $46.5 million. Completion: Fall 2026.

More than 1,500 roads were fully or partially closed after Helene dumped historic amounts of rain on the Blue Ridge Mountains in late September 2024. NCDOT and its contractors have fully reopened all but 34.

NCDOT has spent more than $1.2 billion so far, mostly to repair damaged roads enough to be passable. The department says its crews have repaired 7,309 damage sites, including 585 bridges and more than 1,600 culverts.

But the bulk of the work lies ahead, as NCDOT and its contractors rebuild roads to current highway standards and try to make them less susceptible to future floods.

NCDOT has never experienced anything like Helene. The $5 billion it expects to spend rebuilding is more than five times the cost of all previous storms combined since 2016, which includes two hurricanes, Matthew and Florence, that devastated the eastern part of the state.

NCDOT is counting on the federal government to cover at least 80% of those costs. So far, the department has received $152 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and about $200 million from the Federal Highway Administration, with more support pledged.