Virginia Department of Transportation鈥檚 Bristol District Engineer Tabitha Crowder provided updates about roadways and bridges impacted by Hurricane Helene.
ABINGDON, Va. 鈥 The 1.5-mile section of U.S. Route 58 damaged by flooding from Hurricane Helene is expected to reopen next week.
Additionally, repairs are complete on nearly all of Southwest Virginia鈥檚 highway infrastructure 鈥 except two bridges 鈥 damaged by that storm last September and subsequent storms in February, Virginia Department of Transportation鈥檚 Bristol District Engineer Tabitha Crowder said Tuesday.
Her comments came during a public listening session hosted by state transportation officials.
鈥淎s far as roadways, the largest impact was Route 58 in Washington County where approximately 1.5 miles of roadway between Damascus and Konnarock was either heavily damaged or completely washed away,鈥 Crowder said. 鈥淚鈥檓 pleased to say that next week we have a ribbon cutting scheduled and that project is wrapping up five months ahead of schedule, thanks to our VDOT staff and our contracting partners.鈥
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Original estimates were it might require until October to complete the $10 million project but VDOT announced in March the revised target was May.
Damage from Helene was widespread across multiple counties in the region.
鈥淚n September, Hurricane Helene impacted approximately 500 roads. To date we have removed over 2.5 million cubic yards of debris,鈥 Crowder said. 鈥淲e have two bridges that remain closed due to damage from the hurricane. The Route 859 bridge over Whitetop Laurel Creek in the Konnarock area is still under construction, however crews were able to install a temporary detour adjacent to the bridge being replaced.
鈥淩oute 1212 over Laurel Creek [Damascus] was literally washed away. That bridge is being advertised later this month, work is expected to begin in August and reopen in late spring 2026,鈥 Crowder said.
CTB board member Tom Fowlkes praised the support this region received in Helene鈥檚 aftermath.
鈥淚 think what we saw last fall and this winter, from VDOT and from local governments and from FEMA and all points in between in terms of pulling together to make an incredible difference in how the storm impacted Southwest Virginia,鈥 Fowlkes said. 鈥淚 appreciate Tabitha and her staff working countless hours.
鈥淚f you were here last fall you were seeing VDOT members coming from Staunton, from Hampton Roads, from Fredericksburg and northern Virginia, from almost every district coming to help us in our time of need,鈥 Fowlkes said.
Subsequent flooding in early February impacted over 200 roads in the coalfield counties of Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell, Tazewell and Wise.
鈥淎s of Monday, all roads have been reopened,鈥 she said of those repairs.
Tuesday鈥檚 meeting was one of nine held statewide in advance of the Commonwealth Transportation Board finalizing the state鈥檚 next six-year transportation funding plan.
鈥淏ristol鈥檚 plan for 2026 is valued at $180 million for FY 26 and the district鈥檚 overall six-year program is valued at $706 million in the draft plan,鈥 Crowder said.
This installment of the plan includes the latest round of Smart Scale projects which are evaluated and scored based on levels of need, with the highest scoring projects are fully funded.
鈥淔or the sixth round of Smart Scale, Bristol received 20 applications valued at approximately $291 million. Of the 20 applications, three are in the draft plan and valued at approximately $27.3 million,鈥 Crowder said.
Additionally, $64 million in improvement projects have been completed under the state鈥檚 I-81 Improvement Program in Southwest Virginia. Another $19 million are being engineered and $178 million in projects are under construction, she said.
Two truck climbing lane projects are expected to be completed this year.
鈥淎 reevaluation is underway for the I-81 Corridor Improvement Program to determine what new projects will be awarded in the future, based on research and analysis of the 81 corridor. There will be some meetings on that this summer,鈥 Crowder said.
