LOCAL

Bat Cave mudslide so big that it'll take a new road to clear NC 9

Mark Barrett
The Citizen-Times
State Department of Transportation employees work Tuesday on the edge of a large mudslide covering part of N.C. 9 in Bat Cave.

BAT CAVE — So much dirt fell on N.C. 9 here Tuesday that workers will have to build a new road to the top of the slide to position heavy equipment to remove it, the state Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

That by itself will be no small undertaking: The slide area near the Buncombe-Henderson county line extends 600-800 feet up a mountainside beside the highway.

"The only way to safely remove all the material is to start at the top and work down," said Ted Adams, division construction engineer for DOT's Division 14. "If you start at the bottom, the top would come down on you."

DOT spokesman David Uchiyama said engineers probably will not know until next week how long it will take to clear the slide that covers a section of the lightly traveled highway about 100 feet long.

But, early indications are that it could be a matter of months. 

Adams compared it to a slide that occurred on N.C. 28 in Graham County in mid-December. That road did not re-open until March 2.

The two are similar, Adams said, "only this slide is bigger. It goes all the way to the top of the mountain and somewhere in between there is a 20-foot-high sheer cut."

The slide was reported at about 4 a.m. Tuesday. That's a few days after Western North Carolina saw record rainfall in May. One rain gauge near the site reported 4.3 inches on May 30 alone and two others nearby measured 5.9 and 3.7 inches.

Dirt and trees in the slide area were still moving on Wednesday, Uchiyama said. He said it is nearly impossible at this point to estimate the amount of material that slid down and it will probably be next week before DOT can provide a tentative timeline for the removal process.

The new access road will be cut into the mountainside to get equipment in the right place to remove debris, he said.

DOT geologists are examining the slide and contractors will be able to visit the site Thursday. DOT hopes to award a removal contract Friday, Uchiyama said.

Previous coverage:DOT: 'Full-blown landslide' closes NC 9; no timeline for debris removal

The slide is located between Minnehaha Drive and Old Fort Loop about 16 curvy miles south of Black Mountain and a mile north of U.S. 74-A.

N.C. 9 gets relatively little use: 630 cars a day in the most recent county. DOT is directing N.C. 9 traffic to a lengthy detour that involves taking U.S. 74-A from Bat Cave to the eastern outskirts of Asheville then Interstate 40 to Black Mountain.

Some secondary roads in the area might provide a shorter route for some travelers, but they are curvy, slow to drive and would require several turns to get around the slide area.

Read more:Did Asheville learn from 2004 floods?

This image from Google Earth, modified by the N.C. Department of Transportation, shows the area in Bat Cave where a slope slid into N.C. 9 on Tuesday.