Crews across western North Carolina are working to make communities accessible about two weeks after Hurricane Helene whipped through the state. One major project is reopening a bridge to Baxter International in McDowell County. The plant produces much of the country’s IV solutions.
Nathan Moneyham, division construction engineer for the NC Department of Transportation’s Division 13, said damage to roads in western North Carolina was significant, but crews are making improvements. Division 13 includes McDowell, Burke, Mitchell, Rutherford, Buncombe, Madison and Yancey counties.
“We’re working every day to get as much open as we can,” Moneyham said.
Tim Anderson, division engineer, said NCDOT has identified about 450 bridges or large pipes in the division that were damaged in the storm.
Anderson said the department’s 2,100 employees along with contractors have been working to clear major state roads and make repairs to damaged roads and bridges, including in the North Cove area of Marion.
“We were able to open up several of our large primaries, including I-40 across Old Fort Mountain, early on,” Anderson said. “We’ve got a whole lot left to do. It’s going to take some time to pull together our contractors, get some of those larger repairs designed and get those executed and get folks to work.”
On Wednesday, crews were working on a temporary bridge on Pitts Station Road off U.S. Highway 221 over the North Fork of the Catawba River to give residential community access to their homes and allow tractor-trailers to access the Baxter Healthcare facility that uses Pitts Station Road as its access point.
During Helene, flood waters washed out the foundation of the original bridge and toppled its supports, Moneyham said.
Baxter makes about 74% of the saline bags for hospitals in North America, Anderson said.
“When the bridge was compromised, they couldn’t get their inventory out,” Anderson said. “They sustained some damage inside they’re working on, but they’ve got to be able to get that equipment and get those tractor-trailers out so they can serve the nation.”
Baxter was forced to limit how much IV fluids hospitals can order in the wake of the storm, according to press releases from Baxter International.
Moneyham said Baxter worked with NCDOT and a contractor to build a temporary bridge to get into the business until a more permanent solution was built.
In a release Wednesday, Baxter said it has eased some allocation limits for products but is still limiting how much customers can buy at once. The company is monitoring stock levels and ramping up production at other facilities, the release said.
Baxter said it hopes to restart production at the North Cove facility in phases and get customers back to 100% allocation on some IV products by the end of the year. The company is already working to restore the manufacturing plant.
On Oct. 7, Baxter said it had not found any structural damage to the North Cove facility, power and water was restored and cleanup was in progress. The company expects to have a production plan in the next two weeks, the release said.
“We will spare no resource — human or financial — to restart operations and help ensure patients and providers have the products they need,” said Baxter CEO Joe Almeida.
NCDOT is working on a longer-term, temporary bridge until permanent repairs can be made, Moneyham said. He said the temporary structure would be in place for about a year to a year and a half while a permanent bridge is built. NCDOT hopes the temporary bridge on Pitts Station Road will be ready in about a month, he said.
Anderson said NCDOT employees have been adapting to the challenges throughout the storm. When the power went out, NCDOT offices had generators. When cell services went down, staff in Raleigh made it possible for western North Carolina employees to use satellite phones instead.
“It’s just been a Herculean effort by our folks and the entire community,” Anderson said. “Our staff in Raleigh all the way to the governor, they’ve been here since day one. Supporting us there, supporting us here in the field, and without that, we wouldn’t be where we are at this moment. I just can’t say enough about what they do for us.”
He said NCDOT is making emergency repairs first, then moving to long-term, temporary repairs, and finally making permanent repairs. There isn’t a timeline yet for how long repairs could take.
“It’s a process, and it does take time,” Anderson said.
While repairs are underway, Anderson said people should only travel when it’s essential in the hard-hit areas of Burke, McDowell and other mountain counties.
“There’s a lot of folks wanting to help and a lot of folks bringing help, and that’s great to see the community outpouring from across the state and across the Southeast. It’s nothing short of inspiring to see how much folks care,” Anderson said. “But keeping that travel to essential travel only so that our dump trucks can go up and down the road and folks can get back to life. Especially on the one-lane roads, … extra traffic is not very helpful.”
Check for updated road closures and traffic conditions.