Work continues on the I-40 rockslide in North Carolina. NCDOT is still saying the work should be completed and the highway reopened by the end of April.
The plan to stabilize the mountain where the slide occurred, involves installing 590 rock bolts into the slope. As of April 8th, crews had drilled 509 holes and installed 352 rock bolts. Pretty impressive given that each hole is 100′ deep and the bolts have to be put in place by using a helicopter. Once the bolt is in the hole, it takes about 70 gallons of grout to cement it in place. How would you like to mix up 70 gallons of grout, 590 times? No thanks!
Below is a video posted by NCDOT showing how they use the helicopter to set the rock bolts in place. The one thing that jumped out at me was that the helicopter looked to be of Korean war vintage. What do you think?
