North Carolina

...........The straight-line distance up the mountain from near Old Fort to Swannanoa Gap is about 3 miles; the Old Fort Loops, as this section of railroad is known, twists and turns for 9 miles before emerging from the final tunnel at Ridgecrest. Norfolk Southern’s engineers used drones equipped with LiDAR lasers to map the route and compare it to LiDAR data it had collected before the storm. The railroad and its contractors trucked in 140,000 tons of stone to rebuild washed-out rail bed and shore up embankments and nearly 52,000 linear feet of steel for new retaining walls. Alan Johnson, Norfolk Southern’s chief engineer for design and construction, said the railroad built new and more durable retaining walls and other structures that will make this section of track more resilient during the next storm. The line is used to serve local customers, primarily between Asheville and Hickory, with one train a day in each direction, said David Lehlbach, the assistant vice president for strategic planning. Some of those customers haven’t been able to ship or receive goods since the storm, because trucks can’t handle such heavy loads.........................

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