Norfolk Southern marks key step in Hurricane Helene recovery

Norfolk Southern Railway this month reached a milestone in restoring the western portion of its hurricane-damaged AS Line when crews completed installation of new bridge spans for the NS replacement rail bridge in Newport, Tennessee.

After Hurricane Helene brought historic flooding and unprecedented damage to the Southeast in September 2024, NS teams were able to reopen all core routes affected by the storm within 72 hours of landfall. But the company’s AS Line was severely damaged. The AS Line runs from Salisbury, North Carolina, to Morristown, Tennessee, crossing the Eastern Continental Divide through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Asheville, North Carolina. The line's section that runs from Newport to Old Fort, North Carolina, including the Newport bridge, has been out of service since September, NS officials said yesterday in a project update.

Over the past five months, NS teams and contractors worked to rebuild the bridge, an essential piece of rail infrastructure. On March 14, installation of the final span on the replacement bridge was completed. Built to modern specifications, the new bridge is expected to last for 100 years or longer, NS officials said.

Click here to view an NS-produced video on the bridge project's progress.