Gorge Passage

The I-40 repair in Pigeon River Gorge will still be quite a while. Asheville’s largest newspaper has photos.

UPDATE: Taking the opportunity to improve wildlife safety along the interstate— and drivers’ too. Try hitting an elk or bear at speed and you’ll appreciate the innovation. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That’s going to take a bit more than a load of asphalt and a new guardrail to fix. Will they cut into the hillside, or try piers into the river, I wonder?

LittleRed1

douglas said...

My very slightly educated guess would be a retaining wall either at the edge of the new roadway, or slightly under it with the roadway cantilevered out slightly. This would also act as a reinforced embankment to prevent further erosion in a way that piers alone would not. That said, the wall may be constructed by placing piers then infilling between them, as is a common technique. We shall see. I'm surprised it's just the one bend apparently. Thought it was even worse than that.