DOT and Helene: I-40 update
State Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins says his agency has awarded an $8 million contract to Tennessee-based Wright Brothers Construction to stabilize the hurricane-damaged westbound lanes of Interstate 40 near the Tennessee line.
The deal includes incentives to have the work completed by January, Hopkins said
He added that the company’s offer had come in below the N.C. Department of Transportation’s $10 million estimate.
Hurricane Helene’s floods washed away most of the eastbound lanes of the highway in the Pigeon River Gorge near mile marker 3. The westbound lanes remain, but the washout reaches very close to them.
Wright Brothers works all over the Southeast, and has done road and bridge projects before for DOT in Buncombe, Madison, Randolph, Jackson, Forsyth, Yancey, Mitchell, Henderson and Cherokee counties.
Hopkins said that in addition to the stabilization, DOT is “moving forward with contracts to design and construct the permanent repairs” to I-40, and plans to have “a contractor on board in the next few weeks.”
The agency is still working to reopen about 580 roads that remain closed by the storm, and is dealing with damage at more than 7,000 different sites, Hopkins said.
That includes more than 650 bridge and 700 culvert sites. It expects at least 100 bridges in Western North Carolina will require a full replacement.
Workers have reopened the U.S. 19E bridge over the Cane River near Burnsville, which will help with access to Mitchell and Yancey counties, Hopkins said.
DOT is also working with utility providers along the U.S. 74A corridor between Lake Lure and Gerton, an operation that “involves kayakers pulling lines by hand in the river,” he said.
This item was first published in BNC's sister publication N.C. Tribune.
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Disaster Costs
Monstrous hurricanes Helene and Milton caused so much complex havoc that damages are still being added up, but government and private experts say they will likely join the infamous ranks of Katrina, Sandy and Harvey as super costly $50-billion-plus killers. Making that even more painful is that most of the damage,95% or more in Helene's case, was not insured, putting victims in a deeper financial hole.
Storm deaths have been dropping over time, although Helene was an exception. But even adjusted for inflation, damages from intense storms are skyrocketing because people are building in harm's way, rebuilding costs are rising faster than inflation, and human-caused climate change is making storms stronger and wetter, experts in different fields said.
In the last 45 years, and adjusted for inflation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has counted 396 weather disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage. Sixty-three of those were hurricanes or tropical storms. The $50 billion mark for direct losses is a threshold that differentiates "truly historic events," said Adam Smith, the economist and meteorologist who runs the list out of NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information in Helene-hit Asheville, North Carolina.
The first $50 billion hurricane was Andrew in 1992. The U.S. went 13 more years before Katrina topped the damages chart, then seven years until the third costly whopper, Sandy. Helene and Milton would make seven in the last seven years.
Unemployment Benefits
Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order Wednesday increasing the maximum weekly unemployment payment available to North Carolinians in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The executive order applies statewide and authorizes the current maximum weekly payment of $350 to be raised to $600.
The payments paid out by the state will continue to be capped at 12 weeks, but North Carolinians who lived or worked in the western counties that were impacted by the storm, and are out of work because of it, will qualify for up to 26 weeks of federal benefits that will be paid through the end of March.
In a statement, Cooper, a Democrat, said he was authorizing the raise in weekly unemployment benefits after traveling across Western North Carolina and hearing concern from small business owners about employees who were still unemployed because their businesses are still closed. The executive order, which received unanimous agreement from the rest of the bipartisan Council of State, is tied to the ongoing state of emergency for Helene, and will stay in effect until the end of the emergency, or until the order is rescinded.
On top of raising the cap on weekly benefits to $600, the executive order also increases benefits by $250 per week, up to the $600 maximum, to ensure that any low-income or part-time workers who were receiving less than the current $350 maximum “receive necessary benefits in the wake of Helene,” according to a news release from Cooper’s office.
Cooper’s office noted that even though federal law requires the increased benefits to apply statewide, 79% of new claims filed — 19,735 — between the storm hitting North Carolina on Sept. 27 and Oct. 13 were filed by workers in impacted counties. The governor’s office also noted that only eight other states have lower weekly maximum unemployment benefits after North Carolina, adding that the $350 cap, which was set in 2013, had not been changed since, “even as rising wages in the state continue to grow North Carolina’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund from which benefits are paid.” The trust fund currently has more than $4.8 billion, and is the second-largest of its kind in the country, the governor’s office said.
The governor’s office said that the Division of Employment Security estimated that if 50,000 North Carolinians from the impacted counties were to receive the maximum unemployment payment for the entire 12-week duration, it would cost the trust fund a total of $150 million.
The additional 14 weeks of federal benefits available under the federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance program would cost the federal government an additional $175 million, the governor’s office said. “Many currently unemployed workers will likely return to work before receiving the full benefit they are entitled to claim, so the actual fiscal impact of the increased benefits is expected to be lower,” Cooper’s office said in the release.
In a statement, State Treasurer Dale Folwell said he concurred with Cooper’s executive order but suggested that officials should work to figure out where the increased benefits are most needed. “While natural disasters are nothing new in North Carolina, they always present new opportunities to learn important lessons,” Folwell said. “I recommend that the Governor, working with local, state and federal officials and agencies, resolve to more clearly define and identify areas that are most impacted by this and future disasters. That would assure that increased benefits and employer tax relief are provided to those in the greatest need.”
Cooper’s office said Wednesday that it could take people filing for unemployment between two and three weeks to see the increased payments in their weekly benefit checks.
FEMA Expansion
Residents of 12 more North Carolina counties are now eligible for FEMA individual assistance in the wake of Helene, the agency announced Wednesday morning. The expanded reach now covers Cabarrus, Cherokee, Forsyth, Graham, Iredell, Lee, Nash, Rowan, Stanly, Surry, Union and Yadkin counties, in addition to the 27 counties that were already approved for assistance.
Previously, Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians were authorized for assistance.
Homeowners and renters who had uninsured damage or losses caused by Helene can apply for the disaster assistance, which can help with displacement, temporary housing, basic home repair costs, personal property loss or other disaster-caused needs.
Asheville Connector
As N.C. Department of Transportation crews and its contractors concentrate on immediate recovery, a spokesperson said the long-term impact of Helene on the monumental I-26 Connector project has yet to be determined, but "it's doubtful to have a significant impact on the end date."
NCDOT crews identified more than 6,900 sites where roads and bridges were damaged by the storm, with officials cautioning that some roads remain dangerous and travel limited. The department has reopened more than 600 roads since the storm, according to an Oct. 14 release.
"NCDOT crews and its contractors are currently concentrating on immediate recovery and repair," said spokesperson David Uchiyama, in response to questions about the connector on Oct. 15. "It’s critical that we provide access to all residents, make temporary repairs to provide at least emergency access before beginning long-term permanent replacements."
The $1.3 billion N.C. Department of Transportation project will design a median-divided freeway, accessible only by interchanges, which will connect I-26 in southwest Asheville to U.S. 19/23/70 throughout northwest Asheville. Once complete, the freeway would be part of I-26, which extends from Kingsport, Tennessee, to Charleston, South Carolina.
Only days before Helene, NCDOT announced geotechnical drilling operations for preliminary work on the I-26 Connector would begin along the French Broad River between the Jeff Bowen Bridge and Pearson Road Bridge. The drilling has been postponed indefinitely, Uchiyama said.
The long-awaited project, decades in the works, had recently reached a "milestone moment," with contracts awarded for the north and south sections of the project, both to Archer-Wright Joint Venture.