CHARLOTTE, N.C. — U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says it will be months before crews are able to repair the stretch of Interstate 40 near the North Carolina-Tennessee border after it washed out during Hurricane Helene.
Hundreds of roads are closed in the western half of the state, and NCDOT says all roads should be considered closed. That includes significant portions of I-40, which are open only to emergency traffic and evacuees. Meanwhile, a portion of Interstate 26 in Erwin, Tennessee, was destroyed by Helene. That’s just a few miles from the North Carolina border.
For now, traffic that would normally take either of those highways must use Interstates 81 and 77 to get to Charlotte…