After considering a few options, NCDOT has settled on building a massive concrete retaining wall to protect Interstate 40 from the raging waters of the Pigeon River near the border with Tennessee. And by massive, think Hoover Dam in scale. This concrete wall will be 5 miles long, 30-70 feet tall, and 30 feet thick. No one wants to be the person who gets in the way of reopening an important highway, but before we sink a billion dollars into the project, I feel like the public needs to know there are some serious issues with the current wall plan.

The biggest flaw is that NCDOT isn’t replacing the creek culverts that pass under I-40 (and thus will need to pass through the wall). These creek culverts survived Helene, so why fix them? Well, it turns out the local rainfall in the Pigeon River

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