I-40 problems a teaching tool

Mar 3, 2010 — The Mountaineer

Jeff Redman

Mar. 3, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Dozens of college students from Western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee braved bone-chilling temperatures last Friday to get an up close look at one of the region's biggest engineering challenges -- that is, Interstate 40 through Haywood County.

Geology and environmental sciences students and professors from Western Carolina University, the University of North Carolina at Asheville and East Tennessee State University boarded a handful of vans for a geologic sightseeing trip of sorts to the interstate's most notorious spots, including the site of the October rock slide that has shut the highway down for months.

Led by Jody Kuhne, a state engineering geologist, the students were taken from a meeting place at exit 20 off Jonathan Creek along the now-deserted highway to the foot of the October slide. Kuhne explained to the students the cause of the slide, the challenges engineers and workers faced in cleaning debris from the roadway and the ongoing process of stabilizing the remaining rock face.

Standing at the foot of the rockslide looking up the slope to where workers have been installing hundreds of rock bolts, the science of geology seemed to become larger than life to many of the students.

"Seeing it there brings it to life, it's almost surreal," said Jessica Moore, a student at ETSU.

During Kuhne's talk at the foot of the slide, students asked questions ranging from the technical to the practical -- everything from the geologic makeup of the slope to how workers were able to climb to the top of the slide. Some had never seen such a environmental challenge outsides the confines of a classroom; for others, it was the latest in many studies of real-world geology.

While students talked with Kuhne and posed for pictures a safe distance from the foot of the slide, workers who have been installing rock bolts were at a standstill. Below-freezing temperatures that have been a nearly endless impediment to the cleanup and stabilization efforts kept air compressors and drills silent on Friday.

Since the October slide, workers have fought bitter cold and record snowfalls to prepare the interstate for reopening. Although work was halted Friday, a helicopter that's been transporting rock bolts from the side of the road to the top of the slide was back in service over the weekend.

According to the state, the helicopter flights allowed crews to install and grout 12 rock bolts as part of their effort to stabilize the mountainside at the site of the I-40 rockslide. The Sikorsky (NYSE:UTX) helicopter, which is able to lift up to 4,500 pounds, transported drill rigs 400 feet up the slope. It also ferried grout and other supplies 800 feet to the top of the site.

The day and night shifts that work around the clock have now drilled 230 holes and have installed and grouted rock bolts in 125 of those holes. They have completed tests on 15 of those rock bolts, all of which have passed. Crews will install and test 590 rock bolts before the roadway can be reopened.

This progress may be delayed once again with the return of harsh winter weather. Work was stopped during Tuesday's snowfall. The contractor has been granted 19 days for bad weather to date. The opening deadline has already been pushed back a month and is now projected to be open in late April.

This section of Interstate 40 near the Tennessee border has been closed in both directions since the rockslide occurred Oct. 25. About one mile of the westbound lane closest to the mountain will be closed until this summer to allow crews to complete the work -- including the installation of rock bolts and anchor mesh -- at five additional sites.

Students also visited the site of the 1997 rockslide at the North Carolina-Tennessee state line, where they got a look at the finished product of considerable engineering work there. They also visited the site of a Jan. 23 slide near exit 7 where massive boulders still block the roadway. While students were there, workers were clearing trees from along the slide.

Workers have cleared about 70 percent of the trees at the site of the slide. Crews also began "scaling" the site -- which is roughly 100 feet high and 100 feet wide -- removing boulders, rocks and debris from the mountain slope. The contract calls for workers to stabilize the mountainside by March 12.

UNC-A student J.D. Jorgensen said the field trip was an eye-opening insight into a field he wants to pursue.

"This was an amazing opportunity," he said. "I was so happy we got to come out here."

Jorgensen's geology professor, Bill Miller, concurred.

"In the classroom, you can show pictures all day long," he said. "It doesn't hold a candle to actually being here. It's a wonderful experience for the students. It couldn't be better."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0259-42536998