Nolichucky River construction continues as outages north of the river continue to be restored

JOHNSON CITY – Tropical Storm Helene recovery efforts continued Tuesday along the Nolichucky River, with BrightRidge working to complete a river crossing at Bailey Bridge in the South Central Community.

“Today’s main goal is to complete the structures at Bailey Bridge and get conductor wire across the Nolichucky River,” BrightRidge CEO Jeff Dykes said. “The replacements structures here are significantly larger due to the floodwater from Helene widening the river channel in that area.”

Once new wire is pulled across, BrightRidge can then begin to energize sections south of the river late tonight or sometime Wednesday.

Work also began today a little to the northeast, at Jackson Bridge, to begin constructing the infrastructure necessary to cross the Nolichucky at this location with new conductor wire. Completion of this project may run through Wednesday.  On Thursday, the goal is to start structures necessary for the river crossing at Taylor Bridge, if possible.

“We hope to have power to much of the area south of the river by Friday, but possibly running into the weekend,” Dykes said.

Only three of seven bridges across the Nolichucky remain standing. Such is the devastation in the Corby Bridge area, with extreme widening of the river channel, that a crossing cannot be built at this time. Destroyed spans serving this area will be rebuilt and served by a feed from other sections of the system beginning sometime next week.

There are approximately 1,839 customers south of the river that do not have power.  About 100 outages remain on the rest of the system north of the river, with service crews continuing to work to restore power to those customers throughout Tuesday.

Many of the lingering outages north of the river involve hours of work, with splintered trees, downed spans and broken poles to contend with, only to restore a handful of customers at time.

“We are making good progress,” Dykes said. “Our people haven’t stopped.”

Dykes also asked that any motorists traveling in the area should use the utmost caution as crews are working. The public also should avoid unnecessary travel in the vicinity of the Nolichucky.