The Unofficial
I-26 Construction
Madison County
North Carolina
Pages

The A-10BB project, which runs from NC 213 in Mars Hill to US 19, is still scheduled to be finished and open to traffic by the end of 1998. Signs were being put in place while I was there, but there is still a lot of work to be done (guardrail, paint striping, paving, pouring of median barrier, etc). All will depend on good dry weather over the next few weeks for the project to be completed on schedule.

A-10C

The A-10C project, which runs from US 19 to Laurel Creek Road, is well under construction. Much of the work has moved further south, along the section beside both Sprinkle Creek Road and US 23. The realignment of SR 1609 (North Main Street) has had the first layer of pavement put down in some places, and the relocation of Jarvis Road is progressing as well. Earthmoving equipment is moving material from north of Higgins Branch Road south to a fill; in October the fill was already about 20' high. This is right beside US 23 and can be easily seen from that road.

The Higgins Branch Road bridges have had the beams put in place. It looked to me like the deck supports were being prepared for pouring soon. The work below the bridge along Higgins Branch Road was beginning; this will involve paving the end fills and shaping the ditches and road underneath the bridge.

North of Jarvis Road, earthmoving operations still continue up to Buckner Gap. Most of the work is being done from Buckner Gap down to the first large cut on the project. Earth and rock are transported from the cuts near Buckner Gap to the fills about 3/4 mile south in order to build these high embankments. Much of the fill requires extensive undercut removal or specifies rock material to construct them. The undercut is still being removed, and the contractor hopes to remove most of it before the rainy season begins. Once the rains start falling, the entire undercut area will probably become impossible to work in. If the undercut can be removed, then the contractor can work all winter by hauling rock down the construction road and use it to build a rock buttress and other rock embankments specified in the plans.

Buckner Gap is being cut down daily. The huge trackhoe was on top of the Gap while I was there removing the earth (called overburden) on top of the solid rock below. Big 150 ton trucks then hauled it down to the fill areas. The other cut just to the south of Buckner Gap was being drilled for blasting in solid rock. This cut is already down about 200' in places, but still has to be cut down at least 200' more before they reach the finished grade.

North of Buckner Gap, the Bear Branch Road interchange hasn't been worked on this summer. The bridge on Bear Branch Road has had all the support structures completed, and the caps for the columns are being constructed now. The steel beams for the bridge are near the site but not installed yet.

The northbound lane scenic overlook will be relocated to a different place than is shown on the A-10C location map. As a result of a meeting held at the site in October, the overlook is going to be moved south to a point opposite the southernmost truck escape ramp. The view of Mt. Mitchell, the Black Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway is very good from this site, and the terrain allows the overlook to be constructed very easily.

A-10D

This project, which runs from Laurel Creek Road up to the Tennessee State Line, has had a lot of work this summer. All the construction is still limited to the southern half of the project.

The Laurel Creek Bridge footings are being excavated and poured for the internal supports and columns. One of the footings is right next to Laurel Creek Road, and the concrete has been poured. No column work has begun yet, though. The northern interior endbent has been poured and the retaining walls uphill of it have been constructed. The column work might start this year, but again that depends on the weather.

Waste Area #1 is about a mile north of the Laurel Creek Bridge. The 60" structural plate pipe main line in the bottom of the waste site was in place but not buried for about 2/3 of its length. The western end of the waste site was being filled by colluvium and other material.

A large cut just south of Waste Area #1 is well underway. The contractor has cut down about 100' but has not reached solid rock just yet. The height of this cut will be the largest one on the entire construction route; about 500' from the top of the cut down to the roadbed. From the top of the cut one can see from Buckner Gap on A-10C to Sams' Gap at the Tennessee State Line, a distance of about 5 miles.