The new leg of Interstate 26 through Madison County is the fruit of a massive undertaking. Consider these statistics:
Length: nine miles
Number of lanes: six
Original cost estimate (1988): $50-$60 million*
Final cost: $230 million
Percent paid by the federal government: 80*
Cost of welcome center/rest area $6.1 million
Construction time: seven years
Tons of rock and dirt moved: 39 million cubic yards
Tons of rock and dirt moved for the Beaucatcher cut in Asheville: 3 million cubic yards**
Paving material: Concrete lanes, asphalt shoulders
Runaway-truck ramps: three
Average amount of explosives used per blast: 30,000-40,000 pounds
Estimated total amount of explosives used: 100 railroad-car loads
Interchanges: one (at Bear Branch Road)
Feet of guard rail: 35,000
Footprint of road: 500 acres
Families forced to move: 42***
Additional land claims: 160***
Those claims settled in court: 42***
Churches torn down: two
Cemeteries moved: three
Animal underpasses built: two
Streams relocated: one (Bear Branch)
Amount paid by DOT to compensate for relocating a stream: $1 million
Number of monarch-butterfly sanctuaries created: one
Size of butterfly sanctuary: 3 acres
The bridge over Big Laurel Creek boasts its own set of astounding facts. Here are a few:
Height: 220 feet
Number of DOT bridges in North Carolina that are higher: 0
Other N.C. bridge that’s the same height: The Green River Bridge on I-26, south of Asheville
Cost: $14.5 million
Length: 1,000 feet
Cost of anti-icing system: $437,000
Anti-icing system activation: by phone (or in person)
Source (unless otherwise noted): N.C. DOT Resident Engineer Stan Hyatt, the DOT contract administrator for the nine-mile I-26 project.
* according to the Asheville Citizen-Times, quoting “WNC leaders”
** according to N.C. DOT Assistant Resident Engineer Randy McKinney
*** according to research by Madison County resident Rob Amberg
— compiled by Tracy Rose
