I-40 reopened with one lane going in each direction at the Tennessee-North Carolina state line. This comes five months after the interstate was severely damaged during Hurricane Helene.

Five months after Hurricane Helene severed a critical Appalachian freight corridor, a 12-mile stretch of Interstate 40 through North Carolina’s Pigeon River Gorge reopened Saturday.

Although a lane in each direction will be open to traffic, NCDOT said to expect delays and to consider an alternate route consisting of taking I-81 North to Kingsport then I-26 Ea