AT THE SITE OF THIS SPRING'S MASSIVE LANDSLIDE NEAR SHUMONT ROAD    

GRASS AND OTHER VEGETATION NOW GROWING ON THE SLIDE SITE    

BUT OTHER SMALLER LANDSLIDES ARE REPORTED OVER ON THE BUNCOMBE COUNTY-=OLD FORT SIDE OF NC HIGHWAY 9    

NC Highway 9 near Bat Cave, at the site of that massive landslide back in the spring, is now open to two lanes of traffic according to an update given to WHKP News by Nathan Tanner who is the resident engineer for NC DOT Division 14 which includes Henderson County.    

“There were periodic lane closures scheduled through the weekend as we finish up paving and repairs to the road there at the site of the slide”, said Tanner.

But the road is open, he said, “...and the slide has been cleaned up.” He says all the dirt and other material involved in that slide, which was tens of thousands of cubic feet of dirt, hundreds of trees, rocks, and other material that slid down onto the roadway off the backside of “Rumblin’ Bald Mountain near Highway 9’s intersection with Shumont Road, has been removed and the roadway cleared.

“The slope is being stabilized right now, we’re trying to get grass to grow on the slope, and we’re coming back onto the slope periodically and planting new trees to help vegetate the slope”, Tanner told WHKP News.

Tanner said the slide area is safe now...”...we had a geotechnical engineer give us recommendations about how much material had to come out of the slide and how the slope needed to be laid back in order to stabilize the side of the mountain there”.

The slope is laid back on a 1.7 to 1 slope, said Tanner, so the slope is currently safe.

There are several smaller slides reported now along NC Highway 9, on the Buncombe County side, closer to the Old Fort area, all going back to this year’s excessive rainfall, flooding  and slides this spring and perhaps exacerbated by some more recent heavy rains with near record setting rainfall totals along Highway 9 and in the area of the Rocky Broad River, which runs pretty much pazrallet to Highy 9.

These smaller slides, says Tanner, are now being cleared away and the slide areas stabilized by different contractors in NC DOT's Division 13.   .

The cost of cleaning up that biggest mudslide and repairing the roadway was in excess of a million dollars, has taken the contractor (from Graham County) and NC DOT several months to complete, and for a time caused those who live in that area to travel as many as 50 miles per day in detours for daily commutes.

By Tippy Creswell and Larry Freeman