Interstate 40 , a vital economic connection through the Appalachian Mountains between Tennessee and North Carolina, likely won't fully reopen until 2028.

The pass through the Pigeon River Gorge was washed out in Hurricane Helene last September, causing massive structural damage.

Construction in the past 11 months in North Carolina has been marked mostly by temporary repairs to stabilize the parts of the road that weren't washed out.

Crews built an entire causeway along the river that serves as a construction zone now and eventually will be used to build walls to hold back future floodwaters. The causeway stretches the entirety of the site, approximately five miles.

The work that will take shape in the coming months and years includes building a massive wall that resembles a dam, North

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