Post-Helene, CSX's Blue Ridge Subdivision is on the mend 

By Julie Sneider, Senior Editor 

Hurricane Helene, a Category 4, made landfall Sept. 26, 2024, in the Big Bend region of Florida, reaching wind speeds of 140 mph. It moved north through Georgia and reached into eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina early on Sept. 27, bringing historic rain that spurred flash-flooding and landslides that wiped out entire downtowns and neighborhoods. 

The flooding also caused extensive damage to 60 miles of CSX rail line in Tennessee and North Carolina, which is part of the Class I’s Blue Ridge Subdivision. The line normally handles about 14 million gross tons of freight a year and is vital to supporting residents and businesses throughout the Southeast, according to CSX. 

In the hours after the storm subsided, CSX leadership began to assess the damage. First up: Make sure all employees were accounted for, safe and unhurt — thankfully, they all were. Then, as soon as it was safe to do so, the CSX team engaged drones and helicopters to get the first picture of what the damage entailed. 

Among the CSX leaders on one of those helicopter flyovers was Ed Sparks, chief engineer of bridges, design and construction.  

The devastation Sparks observed — not just on the railroad but on entire communities — was beyond anything he had seen before.  

Image shows damage to the CSX railroad between the Chestoa Recreation Area and what was the TN/NC State Line Bridge. CSX

“There were other helicopters that were flying to hilltops with medical supplies, food and things of that nature to people who were cut off from the outside world,” he says. “That's the environment that we were in, not just the railroad but the infrastructure of civil society was greatly damaged.” 

Entire roads were washed away. The destruction was indiscriminate, where one house was eliminated but the one next door was left intact, Sparks says. 

“With that came the loss of life and a lot of search and rescue was underway in the immediate aftermath,” he adds. 

As those efforts subsided, CSX was able to take stock of what happened to its rail line. Basically, the hurricane wiped out the railroad — in some locations, a person couldn’t even tell a railroad once carried trains through the area, according to Sparks. The damage was so bad that CSX leadership initially discussed whether rebuilding was worth the cost and effort.  

Ultimately, they determined the area was too vital not to move ahead with a recovery and reconstruction plan. 

CSX crews and contractors have been working to restore rail service through the Blue Ridge Subdivision since Hurricane Helene struck the region in September 2024. CSX

Now, six months later, CSX crews, contractors and subcontractors have reached the halfway point of the entire project. 

The scope of the Blue Ridge Subdivision recovery is beyond any customary railroad project. Large segments of railbeds and track structures were wiped out, washed away and/or severely damaged. Complicating the reconstruction is mountainous terrain and environmental concerns, such as areas around the Nolichucky River. 

“The damage [to the Blue Ridge Subdivision] was substantial but confined to the town of Erwin, working south into what’s called the narrow Nolichucky River Gorge,” Sparks explains. “Unfortunately, for the citizens of Erwin and the surrounding area, the floodwaters were extreme and did quite a bit of damage, including loss of life.” 

The destruction was so extreme in some locations across the gorge and over the border into North Carolina that all signs of the railroad’s existence washed away along with the mountain rock the track was built upon. The State Line Bridge, a single-span structure at the Tennessee-North Carolina border, was destroyed entirely.  

“There's been an extensive effort to retrieve as much of whatever material we can find — crossties, rail, track some rock — to clean up and reuse in our rebuilding,” Sparks says. “We’re utilizing some of that material, which would no longer be suitable for mainline railroad usage, to fortify our roadbed embankment. We’re trying to be as sustainable as possible.” 

The image shows just some of the devastation Hurricane Helene and subsequent flooding caused to the railroad in the Blue Ridge Subdivision. CSX

Varying degrees of destruction spanned another 40 to 50 miles south. 

“It’s interesting how indiscriminate Mother Nature was,” says Sparks. “We were fortunate that our bridge structures outside of the gorge were unaffected, but our roadbed, the track, the signals and communications infrastructure were all heavily damaged.” 

South of the gorge, a more traditional washout recovery method was used but on a very large scale, with multiple worksites spread out across 30 or so miles. Restoration materials are being brought in via truck on the northern end of the subdivision and by train on the southern end where rail access is available.  

According to a CSX webpage set up to follow the progress of the Blue Ridge Subdivision restoration, the recovery and reconstruction projects are conducted in several phases, starting with damage assessment and then recovery of track materials. Once site access is available, roadbed and track reconstruction and/or repairs are completed, followed by final inspections. All phases are necessary to return freight-rail service to the corridor, CSX officials say.  

In terms of bridge work, the CSX Blue Ridge webpage describes three bridges impacted in the Nolichucky Gorge area, with two requiring major reconstruction. One bridge is south of Chestoa, Tennessee, and sustained damage to the embankment, but the bridge itself was not significantly damaged.  

For the State Line Bridge at the Tennessee-North Carolina border, CSX crews refabricated steel bridge spans at the Class I’s bridge shop in Barboursville, West Virginia, before placing the structure on site. The bridge is now functional for recovery operations.  

The third bridge, in Poplar, was a 520-foot structure washed out during the flood. CSX was able to recover all six bridge spans and reuse four of them. A new bridge pier will accommodate an additional span.  

Most of the work is aimed at returning the railroad to the way it was prior to the hurricane. At the same time, it will be better positioned to withstand future extreme weather events, Sparks says.  

“This was a unique event in the history of this railroad, which dates back over 120 years,” he says. 

As it rebuilds, the railroad is strengthening the three bridges that were impacted and fortifying the embankment in the gorge so all can better withstand extreme weather, according to Sparks. 

In addition to working with service providers, suppliers and contractors, CSX from the get-go has been in regular communication with municipal officials, North Carolina and Tennessee state officials and U.S. federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Administration, to coordinate the railroad’s recovery efforts.  

“We’re working with everybody, because among the challenges is that access to these locations is difficult,” explains Sparks. 

On any given day, 125 to 150 CSX and contractor employees are working on the restoration efforts, Sparks says. Key projects yet to be completed include finishing the reconstruction of the Nolichucky River bridge near Poplar, North Carolina; reconstruction of the roadbed in the Nolichucky gorge and reconstruction between south Poplar and Spruce Pine, North Carolina. To reach complete access to all areas as quickly as possible, crews on opposite ends of the gorge’s 8-mile area have been reconstructing railbed mile by mile, according to the CSX project webpage.  

When all those efforts are completed, crews will reconstruct track and reinstall signal and communications systems. 

“There’s still much to be done, but we’re making progress on multiple fronts,” says Sparks. 

In the end, CSX’s Hurricane Helene recovery costs are anticipated to exceed $400 million before insurance recoveries, according to CSX Chief Financial Officer Sean Pelkey, who announced the figure in the company’s fourth-quarter 2024 earnings call with analysts.  

CSX officials estimate rail traffic will return to the region sometime in fall 2025. In the meantime, freight-rail traffic continues to be rerouted.  

While the damage to this segment of the railroad was historic, Sparks says CSX employees have stepped up to get things back on track, from the teams working on the recovery and reconstruction to the train crews who’ve managed the heavier-than-usual volumes on their lines as Blue Ridge Subdivision traffic is rerouted. 

Sparks agrees with those who say railroading runs in the blood of railroaders. 

“There’s pride in being part of an industry that’s nearly 200 years old,” he says. “We are an environmentally advantageous option for transportation. And that’s a good thing to be a part of.”