A massive rockslide closed a busy interstate route last week near the border between Tennessee and North Carolina in Pigeon River Gorge. This area has had landslide problems in the past. In 1997 a rockslide in the same area closed the freeway for approximately 3 months. (Photo from Landslides Under a Microscope Blog, original source not cited)

I have yet to see volume estimates, but The Charlotte Observer quoted a highway patrol officer who was at the scene:

He said the roadway is covered by a gigantic mound of debris, from pebbles up to house-sized boulders. The pile is 40 to 50 feet high, Williamson estimated, and hundreds of feet long.

More info and video after the break.

One woman was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, but from some photos, you can see at least a couple vehicles that sustained significant damage. It’s fortunate that no one else was seriously injured or killed.

The rock type involved in the failure is a metagraywacke according to a geotechnical engineer with the North Carolina DOT, and he indicated this slide was a result of a massive wedge failure. Apparently these problems have been well documented over the last 40 years.

The latest information from the Landslides Under a Microscope Blog (no original source cited) is that the cleanup is expected to cost between $2 and $10 million and take several months. In the meantime, drivers must detour approximately 135-miles.

Video from Asheville Citizen-Times

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