It could be September 2025 before CSX Transportation is able to resume operations on the badly damaged portions of its former Clinchfield Railroad route in Tennessee and North Carolina.
The railroad has listed September 2025 as the date by which emergency repairs will be completed in its latest permit request for repairs on the route devastated by Hurricane Helene in late September 2024.
WJHL-TV reports a recently granted permit in Tennessee allows the railroad to “borrow” rock from some locations along the bed of the Nolichucky River. Earlier work involving use of rock from below the ordinary high-water mark of the river led to legal action by outdoors groups concerned that it could alter the river’s suitability for whitewater rafting, and orders from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to halt the practice [see “Tennessee agency orders CSX to stop …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 5, 2024].
The permit covers 2.5 miles of the Nolichucky Gorge in Tennessee (another five miles are in North Carolina) and allows “borrow of rock” in three locations, as well as removal of old track material and installation of 171 rail piles to form a protective wall.
The railroad has previously said it is working collaboratively to “ensure the recovery and restoration is conducted in a safe and responsible way,” and the area’s member of the Tennessee House of Representatives said she believes that to be the case.
“I know a lot of folks along the river had a lot of concern about the way things were going,” state Rep. Renea Jones, who was elected in November, told WJHL, “but I do think that the railroad is committed to building back and I think they’re committed to doing it responsibly.”
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