What It Takes To Reopen A Road When The Road Is Gone

When a storm wipes out the map, how do you draw the road back into being? We sit down with NCDOT veteran Mike Patton for a rare, plain‑spoken look at how Western North Carolina is rebuilding after Hurricane Helene—from carving a path on foot into Bat Cave to designing permanent fixes where entire corridors vanished.

We start with a grounded market update: single-family sales are up year over year, rates are dipping into the fives, and buyers are getting creative with buy-downs and first-time programs. Inventory is rising while prices hold flat, a sign of steady demand even as people weigh the trade-off between keeping an old sub‑4% mortgage and making a life move that can’t wait. Then we pivot to the bigger lift: restoring US 64 to two lanes by spring to fuel access into Chimney Rock and Bat Cave, staging repairs on US 74A and NC 9, and tackling hard-hit side roads like Middle Fork. It’s a masterclass in sequencing, where a single corridor can revive small businesses, tourism, and daily life.

The Pigeon River Gorge sets a new benchmark for complexity and cost, with estimates topping a billion dollars and a working horizon that reaches toward 2028. Mike explains why this job demands patience: geotech realities have changed, hydraulic forces have reshaped the terrain, and you can’t shortcut design when safety and longevity are on the line. To move faster without gambling on quality, NCDOT is releasing work packages as plans mature—stabilizing slopes and mobilizing crews while final drawings come together. Through it all, we highlight the people behind the progress: teams who left damaged homes to serve neighbors, engineers balancing spreadsheets and rock faces, and a community showing grace while heavy machinery does its slow, essential work.

If you want a candid, hopeful look at how roads return when the road is gone—and how a resilient housing market helps steady the region—this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with a neighbor navigating detours, and leave a review with your biggest question for NCDOT or our real estate team.

Transcript

Ten Years On Air

SPEAKER_02 0:00

The George Real Estate Group Radio broadcast is celebrating 10 years on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is celebrating 10 years on the radio live every Thursday morning at 10.05 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450, and streaming online at WHKP.com. Each Friday morning at 8.45, the George Real Estate Group presents the Hometown Hero Award to someone in our community who goes above and beyond to make our hometown a better place to live. Here's this week's Hometown Hero Show. It's 8 45 on Friday morning, and that is always our George Real Estate Group Hometown Heroes Show. And we love it every week to get together with uh Noah George. Noah, thank you so much for sponsoring this part of our broadcast week. It's uh really cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Really, uh it's highlight of my week and love uh it's a privilege and honor to sponsor the Hometown Heroes series.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

We met some wonderful people over the years, some people who uh uh we we you know there's a lot of negative news around these days, and uh we like to uh pour a cup of kindness on Friday mornings. We really do.

Market Update And Rates In The Fives

SPEAKER_00 1:23

And focus on the positive. And there's so much to be thankful for and grateful for in our community, and that's where you and I get the opportunity to to speak with men and women serving this community, making a difference, and uh this Friday's no exception. And just a quick update on the real estate market. You know, Henderson County single family homes in 2025, there was an 8% increase in the number of homes sold in 2025 versus 2024, so that's significant. And the other big news this week that came out, there are more people, this has been a quiet phenomenon happening with the the interest rates, right? I mean, interest rates this week, you know, you can dip into the fives now, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Although, again, the the everybody has been talking about the the what happened during COVID and the two and three and four percent interest rates, but they just released a study that said more people today have interest rates over six percent than they have below three percent. That's for the first time ever, because so many people had those really low interest rates, which was why so many people were like, I'm not gonna sell. Why would I sell? I got a I got an incredible interest rate, and and I'm just gonna you know. But at some point, other factors come into play than just interest rate, like life happens, and and there can be other compelling reasons why someone might sell or might need or choose to sell, other than just waiting and holding on to that three percent interest rate forever.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Yeah, and and I believe I heard you talking earlier on a podcast about how uh a lot of people are now using very creative ways to finance, taking advantage of first-time home buyers loans and buying down an infrequent.

New Listing And Open House Details

SPEAKER_00 3:04

You can buy down interest rates. There's also I mean, just not on top of all that, in equity that everyone has uh uh at an all-time high. I mean, so prices actually held because the even though there's more homes hitting the market, because people are now starting to like I'm not gonna wait to I'm not gonna pause my life just because my interest rates at three percent. They yeah, they're selling and buying and life happens, but there's great options for financing. Inventory levels are increasing, but demand is holding strong and and so are the prices. It's it's it was flat, which flat's better than down. So again, it's uh we're in a very stable real estate market, even with coming out of Helene and everything. But I mean, just again, everybody's situation is unique and different. The market you know is what it is, interest rates are what they are. But I mean, they um interest rates. I mean, this week people were locking in into the fives for 30-year fixes, which which is which is incredible. Um, one more thing. We have an open house and a brand new listing this this weekend. 1867 Fruitland Road, over five acres, almost six acres, incredible property, over three thousand square foot home. Open this Sunday, two to four. Brand new listing. Go to our website, go to our social media, 1867 Fruitland Road in Hendersonville.

Introducing NCDOT’s Mike Patton

SPEAKER_02 4:19

That's a beautiful part of Hendersonville. It certainly certainly is. It really is. Mike Patton is with the NCDOT, the North Carolina Department of Transportation. And Mike, good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Well, thank you for coming out on such a cold morning. We uh we tried to warm the place up a little bit for you. Uh uh, thank you for coming out and and chatting with us about uh we're continuing to recover from Hurricane Helene. Uh I had uh Mike Morgan, Henderson County Chief Communications Officer on this morning talking about uh ongoing work to get funding and and the roads and the highways and the bridges that were destroyed during Helene. It's uh it's an ongoing war, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 5:05

It is. It's uh uh we've been at it since the day after the storm and uh continue to work very hard at it.

Helene’s Impact And Early Response

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Yeah, you are uh thirteenth division, fourteenth division, which includes Henderson County. It does, and so gosh, what what did you think uh when you woke up on September 26th in 2024, man?

SPEAKER_01 5:28

It was um I live in Haywood County, and so uh my f first thought was to get out of Waynesville, which proved to be impossible. Yeah, and um so Sunday I made it down to the gorge on I-40 and realized that there was nothing to be done there. And um eventually, I think on Monday I made it here to Henderson County because I that's this is where I've been working for the last four or five years. Yeah. And um with no cell service, uh, no ability to communicate, we started gathering up people as best we could if they would if they showed up at the office or um knew where they lived and then went to work and been working ever since. Mike, how long have you been with the DOT? I reti actually retired from the NC DOT after after 30 years and um came came back to work as a consultant. Really? So yeah, now I'm working on I started um I started in October of 1995.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

In North Carolina, I mean North Carolina the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Yes, yes. Well, in really in in this rip area the whole entire time, yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Then you it's amazing. I'm sure you can speak. It's it's remarkable to see how our community has evolved and changed, and then especially I mean, we're from your perspective and how you guys have been taking care of our roads and and all the things. Uh I'm sure it's amazing to reflect on in those years.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

It it really is. I spent I spent a large portion of my career working on I-40 and the Pigeon River Gorge, the large rock slides, and um, so yeah, a lot of my uh work got washed away by Helene. Wow. Wow. Um but yeah, I've had a really good career.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

That's amazing. So now came again, congratulations on that retirement, and then now back as a consultant. In your entire career, had you have we experienced anything like we experienced with Helene?

Career Perspective And Unprecedented Damage

SPEAKER_01 7:24

No, absolutely not. Um it's certainly a once-in-a-lifetime event. Um, depending on who you ask, it's a once-in-a-thousand-year event. Yeah, it no. We will never, hopefully, let's let's pray we'll never see anything like this again in our lifetimes.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

What's your assessment of things moving forward? I know you've been working, I know DOT's been working nonstop since this. What's what does this look like going forward? And and then what's your how are we right now compared to where we began?

SPEAKER_01 7:54

So we're making really good progress. I think one of the things that I would like to make sure people understand is that after an event like Helene, you on a lot of these roads that were completely destroyed, you have to go back to the drawing board. Like you, when the road is completely gone, you can get temp some temporary access, but to build back a permanent facility, you have to have a design, you have to have a set of plans. Engineers and engineers, and and all that takes time. Um and so that's one of the reasons I think that people may be a little frustrated here and there is that it's like, well, why it's a year more than a year now after the storm, but you just you can't these things just don't appear. And so work is really starting to kick off right now, especially I I'm in charge of all the work down around the Bat Cave area, um, and we are really starting to roll down there.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

That w what is the biggest challenge there in the gorge? Uh the biggest damage you had. What where'd you start? I mean.

Designing Permanent Fixes Takes Time

SPEAKER_01 8:58

We started um right after the storm, I made it into Bat Cave on foot. Um we sought our way in there, uh, shout out to Martinez Landscaping and Ethan Fowler, by the way. Um we cut our way in there and started looking at the damage along US 64 and realized that that was probably the our best chance to get a two-lane, a completed two-lane road back into the area. And so if if you go down there now, we're actually within a couple of months of having re-established a completely brand new two-lane facility. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

That's fantastic. Um You know, you you touched on uh the other gorge, the Pigeon River Gorge, and uh the more I read about that damage that occurred there and how what it's taking to get that rebuilt, um it's expected to take until the year 2028.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

That's correct. I mean, I I think everybody hopes that there's a possibility we can be done sooner than that. But given the amount of damage and the scope of it, i it's I mean, it it's it's a challenge that that really is unprecedented.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Uh I read uh something about where, you know, the the uh widening of I-26 and and the uh upcoming bypass of I-240 around Asheville, I-26 uh there. And and that those two jobs, the the Pigeon River Gorge repair jobs gonna cost more than those two jobs combined. That is true.

Bat Cave And US 64 Progress

SPEAKER_01 10:43

It it is. That's amazing. Current, you know, current estimates for the Pigeon River Gorge are well over a billion dollars.

unknown 10:50

Woo!

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Um they're still working, you know, the the plans, the permanent the plans for the permanent fix are still in the works. They're getting close. I think they're at like 90% plans now.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Um a lot of the work you still that you see going on, the the contractual process that was chosen for I-40 um allows you to get started with work while the plans are being completed. And so it's a it's a contractual process that allowed us to go to work quicker and sooner than a lot of our contracting methods.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Let a contract on this portion, this portion, this portion is starting with the code.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah, like it it comes out in what we call work packages. Okay. And so you can get started with the work quicker and sooner, and it allows you to be working while the plans are being designed. Um, usually, you know, like if you build a house, you don't start until you have a full set of plans, right? All right. Full set of drawings.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

This process allows us to kind of get started on pieces and sp hopefully speeds up the whole process.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

What uh in the the the pigeon uh the uh chimney rock gorge, uh what you say we're very close to the two-lane situation then?

Pigeon River Gorge Timeline And Cost

SPEAKER_01 12:05

So we'll have US 64 back to two lanes and can completed, I would say, by spring. Um that's gonna kind of fuel all of the reconstruction in the chimney rock and Batcave area. Um we're currently getting ready to go to work uh on US 74A from the county line into Chimney Rock. Um NC9's under construction. Um we have some of the s smaller routes, side roads, like the Middle Fork community was heavily affected. We're working up there. Yeah. Um the work into chimney rock itself uh should start, I'm hearing, around April. Um that's a real challenge. That section actually falls in another division in Division 13.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

That is very challenging because there was literally nothing left. Like when you walk when I walked down that way after the storm, there was no road. There was there was nothing. Nothing survived. And so there literally you're starting from scratch. Where where there had been a road for 200 years, probably, there was nothing.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

That is amazing. Yeah. That is amazing. Well, it's amazing how all of you at the North Carolina Department of Transportation uh I just want to thank you. That's why we wanted to have you here today. Is thank you because I know, I know for a fact that uh there are people in your organization who uh left their own homes and went to work to build back the roads. We did. Yeah. There's lots of them.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

And we're we all live here. Uh we're all we're all proud of that.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

So you should be.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

You should be.

Phased Contracts And Work Packages

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Yeah, we're so thankful for you and your everybody that would that works with you and for what you're doing for our community. It's amazing. And and thank you for s bringing up just that perspective where again I can imagine how the challenging it is. I mean, and and we encourage people's patience and kindness and understanding of like the it it just takes time, and you guys are at it every single day. And so perspective is everything, and and again, just the commitment you guys have to getting our community back to where it was.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Yeah, and and we are committed to that. We're uh the work won't stop until we reach that point.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Fantastic. Well, uh, Mike uh Noah's got a uh certificate there that we'd love for you to put in the office there at the NCDOT.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

Yeah, honoring you guys and thanking you for all of the work you continue to do, and uh we're so grateful to you. If we can ever be a service to you here at WHKP, just call on us.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Thank you very much. I really appreciate you guys having me this morning.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Well thank you. Yeah, again, it's it's a it's um it's amazing to hear, and we're so thankful, and our community is recovering.

Rebuilding Chimney Rock And NC 9

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Absolutely, and uh we want to continue to honor these folks who are helping us put it all back together again, and we do that every Friday morning at 8 45 here on the George Real Estate Group Hometown Hero Series. If you missed it, uh we podcast this about 15 minutes from now. It'll be up on all your favorite podcast platforms. Thank you for joining us. Have a good weekend. The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, North Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygreg.com. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-3930134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, Flat Rock, North Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 1005 AM on WHKP 107.7 FM and 1450 A.m. or stream online at WHKP.com or download these podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. The George Real Estate Group brings you the WHKP Hometown Hero Series every Friday morning at 8.45.

Gratitude For DOT And Community Patience

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Maybe the house feels a little too big these days. The stairs a little steeper. The pace of life a little too fast. But what if your next move wasn't about letting go? It was about making space for peace, for freedom, for what matters most. At the George Real Estate Group, we understand that real estate isn't just about the house. It's about transitions, timing, and trust. We've helped thousands of families in Western North Carolina make smart, thoughtful moves. Closer to nature, closer to family, closer to home. So when you're ready to rise, size, simplify, or start fresh, we'll be here. The George Real Estate Group. Call us today, 828-393 0134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com because your next chapter deserves to feel just right.