Safe Passage

The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project

smokies safe passage

I-40 rebuild offers rare opportunity for wildlife conservation

Please note: Since this story published in November 2024, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein announced that two lanes of Interstate 40 through the Pigeon River Gorge are expected to re-open March 1, 2025.

Featured in (from left) Asheville Citizen Times, Smoky Mountain Living magazine, Smoky Mountain News, and Knoxville News Sentinel.

By Holly Kays
When the Safe Passage coalition started working in 2017 to make Interstate 40 a safer place for people and wildlife through the Pigeon River Gorge, nobody knew that, in a few short years, entire sections of the critical roadway would vanish in the wake of Hurricane Helene. The scale of Helene’s damage was unfathomable, with 106 people confirmed dead in North Carolina alone and survivors left to contend with tens of billions of dollars in damages to property and infrastructure. The region is in mourning—but the rebuilding process may offer a once-in-a-generation opportunity to save the lives of future travelers.

“If we want to look for silver linings, I think there is a chance that we could use this long pause in traffic on I-40 to create some win-wins for wildlife, driver safety, and flood resilience along the road,” said Ron Sutherland, chief scientist for coalition partner Wildlands Network.

The 28-mile stretch of I-40 that passes through the Pigeon River Gorge bisects a rugged landscape that falls mostly within the Pisgah National Forest, Cherokee National Forest, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, and before Helene, the road handled about 26,500 vehicles every day—a formidable barrier to natural wildlife movement across the landscape. Between 2018 and 2020, researchers Liz Hillard of Wildlands Network and Steve Goodman of National Parks Conservation Association analyzed 304 collisions between vehicles and large animals like bear, deer, and elk. Nationwide, wildlife–vehicle collisions kill more than 200 people annually and cost over $10 billion, according to a 2023 report from the Federal Highway Administration.

Through collaboration with government agencies and efforts to secure funding for wildlife crossings, Safe Passage has been working toward infrastructure solutions that would prevent such crashes from happening. Thanks to the group’s partnership with the NC Department of Transportation, the designs for five I-40 bridges up for replacement were amended to include wildlife-friendly modifications, and the agency was poised to use a $2 million wildlife-crossing allotment from the NC General Assembly to install fencing and evaluate Wildlands Network’s and NPCA’s research-based proposals for improving connectivity in the gorge.

Then Helene struck.

The hurricane hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm and then moved north, dropping record-setting amounts of rain on communities across Southern Appalachia. A gauge on the Pigeon River just below the power plant at Waterville, located along the I-40 corridor, jumped from its normal level of four feet up to nearly 22 feet before the river tore the gauge out around 10 a.m. September 27, as the worst of the flooding unfolded. Three of the five bridge replacements were completed, or nearly so, when the hurricane arrived, and they came through mostly unscathed. However, other areas of the road incurred catastrophic damage. Eastbound lanes in the four-mile stretch between the Tennessee–North Carolina state line and North Carolina mile marker 4, where both east- and westbound lanes of traffic disappear into a tunnel, bore the brunt of the destruction. In some places, the shoulder is gone. In others, one lane crumbled, and in some, both lanes are missing. The road saw significant damage on the Tennessee side of the state line too, with the eastbound lanes damaged in multiple locations from mile 446 to the state line at mile 451.

“Because of the alignment of the river versus the road coming in from an angle, the water got in behind walls,” explained Wanda Payne, Division 14 engineer for NCDOT. “And so once it got behind those walls, it just ate out the dirt. It’s like ‘between a rock and a hard place,’ except our hard place wasn’t as hard as we thought it was, so the rock won.”

In the most-affected areas of I-40, entire lanes of highway were carried away, as was the soil on which they once rested. Photo provided by NCDOT.

The highway between Maggie Valley and the state line has been closed since the storm as NCDOT develops plans for both emergency stabilization and long-term repair, while the adjoining five miles in Tennessee are open only as a two-lane road for local, noncommercial traffic. As of February 10, there were still 172 road closures in effect across North Carolina, with roughly 8,000 sites damaged, including at least 140 bridges in need of replacement. NCDOT continues to chip away at this massive to do list.

“I definitely sympathize with the DOT, because they’re in a position where they feel like they need to be racing ahead to get all these things put back in place, but at the same time, I hope that the public can see the opportunity here,” said Sutherland. “We can make it so that the next time a big storm like Helene comes through, our infrastructure actually survives.”

For this, Sutherland sees Vermont as a role model. Hurricane Irene inflicted massive damage on the state in 2011, and afterward Vermont invested nearly $230 million in 130 infrastructure projects designed to withstand similar weather events in the future. The state saw another round of major flooding in 2023, and those sites were either undamaged or minimally impacted.

Any bridge or culvert that can survive a storm like Helene will need to be “absurdly big and strong,” Sutherland said, ensuring space to install culverts or underpasses large enough for bear, deer, and other animals. Wildlands Network recently completed an analysis of North Carolina bridges damaged by Helene that prioritizes their importance for wildlife connectivity.

Two bobcats climb into a culvert that runs under I-40. They will use the pipe to reach the other side of the highway without crossing traffic. Photo provided by National Parks Conservation Association, Wildlands Network.

“If we’re able to put in better bridges that are more floodproof and stronger and bigger on even a quarter or half of those sites,” Sutherland said, “that’s going to have huge benefits for wildlife.”

But it’s a time-sensitive issue. The DOT is working to restore the state’s transportation infrastructure as quickly as possible, an undertaking expected to be extremely expensive, even without considering wildlife crossings. The Safe Passage group is working hard to offer planners its input and help secure funding for installations that could benefit wildlife for generations to come.

“If we miss this opportunity, then Hurricane Helene could have the counterintuitive result of foreclosing on the likelihood for wildlife improvements at hundreds of sites over the next 50 years,” Sutherland said. “Who will want to tear out shiny new bridges and culverts?”

NCDOT structures destroyed by Helene had an average age of 60, meaning that many of them would have been up for replacement in the coming years. Losing the opportunity to improve their utility for wildlife post-Helene would be a “serious setback,” Sutherland said.

The Pigeon River Gorge continues to be a top priority for Safe Passage. The area damaged by Helene includes four sites in Tennessee and three in North Carolina that the research from Wildlands Network and NPCA flagged for wildlife-crossing concerns. In any highway project, rerouting traffic comprises a significant percentage of the budget—but if wildlife-crossing structures could be dropped in while the road is still closed, these improvements could be made with less hassle or expense than will likely be possible again anytime soon.

Safe Passage’s earlier efforts to coordinate with transportation planners have paved the way to make such an outcome more likely than it would have been prior to the group’s formation—Payne said that NCDOT’s plans will address wildlife concerns mentioned in the report. But what that repair might look like is still an open question. In many places, the entire bedrock on which the road rested is gone. NCDOT may decide against rebuilding I-40 exactly as it was before.

Due to potential difficulty in securing reimbursement from the Federal Highway Administration, it’s unlikely NDOT will choose to reroute the entire corridor. However, realignment within the most-affected area is a possibility, as are walls, viaducts, and bridges. The NCDOT awarded Wright Brothers Construction an $8.5 million contract to perform temporary emergency repairs on the road and had expected to open the westbound lanes for two-way traffic by New Year’s Day. However, that timeline was delayed when a large chunk of concrete fell from one of the eastbound lanes, NCDOT announced December 20. The road is now expected to accommodate two-way traffic starting March 1, with a speed limit of 40 miles per hour.   Tennessee is working to reopen all lanes of I-40 in its jurisdiction by the end of the year, and NCDOT expects to do so by October 2026. It has hired Ames Construction as contractor, RK&K as designer, and HNTB as project manager. Payne wants all three parties to meet with Safe Passage early in the process to discuss how wildlife crossings should factor into the design.

Rebuild stronger infrastructure now so NC can save later, featured in Raleigh News & Observer

By Ron Southerland

The Pigeon River damaged or destroyed the eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 in several places after the remnants of Hurricane Helene dropped historic amounts of rain on Western North Carolina. This photo was taken about four miles from the Tennessee line. Photo courtesy of NCDOT.

When Vermont was hit by Hurricane Irene in 2011, its infrastructure was shattered, just as ours in North Carolina is now. Someone up there had the wisdom to make sure every culvert, bridge and building that was destroyed was replaced by a version that was bigger, stronger and more resilient to flooding. I suggest North Carolina take the same approach, with substantial support from the federal government and our own General Assembly. It may be expensive up front but provides significant savings and much faster recovery from storms down the road.

Read the full Raleigh News & Observer feature here.

Creating Safe Passage, featured in Blue Ridge Outdoors

By Holly Kays

Photo by Michele Sons.

Extensive efforts to add highway wildlife crossings near the Smokies aim to protect animals and people

Editor’s Note: This story was published in the October issue of Blue Ridge Outdoors before Hurricane Helene devastated portions of western North Carolina and surrounding areas. Due to extensive flood damage on Interstates 40 and 26, the Safe Passage Fund Coalition is adapting its ongoing work to include assessing the affects of the storm to recently installed crossing improvements and working to collaborate with environmental and government partners to prioritize animal and human safety as these highways are being repaired and rebuilt.

By 10 p.m., interstate 40 was dark and deserted as North Carolina State Representative Sarah Crawford and her husband Dan cruised east past Morganton, N.C. They were eager to reach their hotel for some rest between the wedding they’d just attended and the comedy show and baseball game planned for the next day. 

Then the car stopped “like we had hit a brick wall,” said Sarah Crawford, a Wake County representative in the North Carolina General Assembly. 

In fact, they’d hit a 200-pound bear. Every air bag deployed, the front fender crumpled, and the car was left motionless in the dark—on a road where most people drive 70 miles per hour or more. Though the couple managed to escape mostly unscathed, the car was totaled, and the bear was dead.

It was a “pretty scary incident” that sent Crawford “down a rabbit hole” searching for information about how to make roads safer for both human travelers and native wildlife. That journey led her directly to the Safe Passage coalition, a group of people and organizations that has been working since 2017 to make wildlife crossings safer not only in its focus area of the Pigeon River Gorge, but also in hotspots across North Carolina and Tennessee. 

“We at Safe Passage often use the tagline, ‘what’s good for wildlife is good for people,’” said Tim Gestwicki, the coalition’s steering committee chair and CEO of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation. “And clearly, if they run into a large animal, the danger is there for people too. So it’s a perfect nexus of people and wildlife safety.”

Photo courtesy of NPCA/Wildlands Network.

Over the years, Safe Passage has become an increasingly organized collaborative of dedicated partners involved in everything from transportation planning to educational outreach and lobbying efforts—work that is predicated on foundational research it conducted starting in 2018. Coalition partners Wildlands Network and National Parks Conservation Association hired researchers Liz Hillard and Steve Goodman to tackle the project, and the pair placed 120 cameras along the 28-mile Pigeon River Gorge corridor. This stretch of Interstate 40 straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee line, bisecting a rugged landscape that falls mostly within either the Pisgah National Forest, Cherokee National Forest, or Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

View the full Blue Ridge Outdoors feature here.

Safe Passage facilitator Jeff Hunter looks back on five years of progress since coalition’s beginnings

Jeff Hunter deploys a wildlife camera just outside the boundaries of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2017.

This week marks five years since the first meeting of stakeholders to discuss what has evolved into Safe Passage: The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project. In early February 2017, more than 20 representatives from federal, state and nongovernmental organizations gathered in the Asheville office of Defenders of Wildlife to discuss elk and their habitat selection preferences. In translation: As elk expand into new territory, what types of habitat are they likely to move into?

All this was being driven by the Pisgah National Forest’s 12-Mile Project, which among other things, seeks to expand wildlife habitat in the Pigeon River Gorge. Several of us — including Hugh Irwin from The Wilderness Society and Kim DeLozier, then of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation — were concerned that elk could wind up in the highway if we didn’t consider their response to proposed logging in the area.

A rich and impassioned conversation went back and forth, with representatives from agencies like the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service (Pisgah National Forest), Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission offering their thoughts. Conversation over lunch was especially productive. As that initial meeting concluded, we agreed to explore the issue of wildlife-vehicle collisions on Interstate 40 together.

That led to a September 2017 meeting in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, where road ecologist Tony Clevenger, PhD, came to speak with the group and attend a field trip. Clevenger made it clear that we needed to conduct research to understand the extent of the problem.

Fast forward to October 2018, and we were back in Maggie Valley attending a two-day Wildlife Crossing Workshop facilitated by the Federal Highways Administration.

Just a couple months later, Wildlands Network and National Parks Conservation Association began an extensive two-year research project along a 28-mile stretch of I-40.

So, here we are in February 2022. The results of our research are in the final stages of analysis. In March 2022, stakeholders will once again gather to learn about the results and start to prioritize focal areas within our study area.

An elk is caught on camera passing through the Pigeon River Gorge. The migration of elk into new territory, including areas around Interstate 40, is what prompted the very first meeting of what would later become Safe Passage: The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project.

“Several of us were concerned that elk could wind up in the highway if we didn’t consider their response to proposed logging in the area.”

Interstate 40 in the Pigeon River Gorge cuts through the habitat of Smokies wildlife, including elk and black bears.

Yes, it’s an exciting time for wildlife — as we’re on the cusp of addressing what seemed like an intractable issue just five years ago!

I hope you’ll consider taking the Safe Passage pledge and perhaps donate to the Safe Passage Fund. Together, we can and will make a difference.

Jeff Hunter is a Senior Program manager with National Parks Conservation Association. He serves as the facilitator of the Safe Passage: I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project.

NCDOT to begin construction on wildlife crossing at Harmon Den

The bridge over Harmon Den Road at Interstate 40 Exit 7. Photo courtesy of Google Maps Satellite imagery

On Nov. 3, 2021, the North Carolina Department of Transportation announced preparations for significant construction on Interstate 40 over Harmon Den Road, at Exit 7 in Haywood County. Starting as soon as Nov. 9, a contractor for the NCDOT will begin work to replace the bridge at this exit, integrating wildlife crossings into the new structure.

The Harmon Den area has long been a hotspot for wildlife-vehicle collisions, and Safe Passage: The I-40 Pigeon River Gorge Wildlife Crossing Project has advocated for building a wildlife crossing at this location. When the NCDOT announced plans to replace the existing bridge structure here, Safe Passage and its partners collaborated with the agency for a safe solution to fit this particular site.

The plans for the new Harmon Den bridge include two paths — one on each side of Cold Springs Creek — to help wildlife migrate from one side of the interstate to the other without encountering vehicles. A 9-foot tall fence will guide animals to the trails, away from traffic and under the bridge. 

NCDOT is also evaluating the use of wildlife guards — similar to slotted cattle guards — to prevent deer and elk from walking up the ramps. These measures will hopefully encourage wildlife to cross under the bridge and reduce the possibility of animal accidents. 

“We are excited to be adding protections for wildlife in this and other upcoming NCDOT projects,” said Division 14 Engineer Wanda Austin in a press release from the NCDOT. “We have worked with a wide variety of interest groups, transportation, and wildlife experts to incorporate these unique features to benefit the people who drive the gorge, and the animals that live in the gorge.”

Austin has been a participating stakeholder in the Safe Passage collaborative since its inception in 2017.

The traffic management plan for this project includes a six-month detour around the bridge, with drivers utilizing the exit and onramps. 

In late October and early November, construction crews from contractor Kiewit Infrastructure South have been mobilizing equipment and preparing to begin significant construction activities. By the first week of November, crews had already begun upgrading the exit and entrance ramps. 

As soon as mid-November, all traffic will be funneled into a one-lane pattern prior to the bridge and will use the ramps as a detour around the bridge. Traffic will remain in this pattern into May 2022 while crews remove and replace the deteriorating structure. 

In a feature article published by the Asheville Citizen Times on Nov. 5, Jeff Hunter, National Parks Conservation Association senior program manager and Safe Passage facilitator, thanks the NCDOT for its collaborative work to make I-40 a safer place for wildlife and motorists alike.

Black bears, elk, whitetail deer and other, smaller animals live in the surrounding mountains and naturally migrate across the area — and across the highway — looking for food, mates and habitat, Hunter told the Citizen Times.

In addition to the unique wildlife features, this five-bridge project is also the first of its kind in the state to be administered in a new method with the intent of forming a partnership between the NCDOT, the contractor and the design team. Kiewit Infrastructure earned the $19 million contract for the first of the five, which has a final completion date set in May 2024.

Exit 7 from I-40, where construction will soon begin to replace the existing bridge structure and add crossings for wildlife.

The current I-40 overpass as viewed from Harmon Den Road.

The result of the new construction manager/general contractor method is lower costs and expedited delivery from the first step in the design phase to the last inspection of the new bridge, and new safe passage underneath.

Drivers desiring to go from Asheville to Dandridge, Tenn., may choose to take I-26 West to Kingsport and then I-81 South to Dandridge. This route adds about 45 minutes to driving time compared to a typical trip through the gorge.

Accommodation or decimation: It’s time to choose how we share our mountains

Before you can solve a problem, you have to understand it. Like many other roadways around the nation, the Safe Passage project area — a 28-mile stretch along I-40 in western North Carolina and east Tennessee — has created a “barrier effect” for wildlife, fragmenting species’ habitats and separating wild animals from their needs.

Safe Passage is part of a growing national and global effort to create safe crossings for wildlife. Using a study and process known as road ecology, Safe Passage aims to help its target region plan and implement a variety of crossing structures, from culverts to bridge extensions and overpasses, designed just for animals.

A combination of fencing and crossing structures has been used successfully in countries all over the world, from France and Germany to Singapore and South Korea. In North America, Canada and Mexico have also successfully created effective crossings, and now, states like California, Colorado, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Utah are focusing on road ecology too.

Before coalition partners can begin increasing highway safety for animals and humans alike, states’ Departments of Transportation need scientific data to make informed plans. For the last two years, National Parks Conservation Association and Wildlands Network have been conducting field research to evaluate how roadways outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park influence black bear, white-tailed deer, and elk.

The researchers’ multi-faceted approach assesses wildlife’s use of existing structures, road mortality, and activity within the highway right-of-way. It also identifies and predicts elk road-crossing locations using movement information from GPS-collared elk. This will help identify areas along the interstate where mitigation strategies such as fencing and crossing structures could be best implemented to reduce wildlife–vehicle collisions and increase habitat connectivity.