I-40 closure keeping tow trucks busy in TN as truckers search for faster detours

Heavy wreckers in Tennessee have been busy this month as semi trucks search for faster detours in wake of the Interstate 40 closure. 

Two companies in Sevier County, Tennessee say that commercial vehicles have been getting stuck on secondary roads since the indefinite closure of Interstate 40 along the North Carolina, Tennessee state line, leaving them with plenty of work. 

According to WLVT 8, one road experiencing these truck traffic issues is Line Springs Road in Wears Valley, where residents say at least two tractor trailers a day get stuck in the same spot, despite multiple signs warning drivers to turn around. 

“It’s a great access to the park, especially for people in the valley coming through Pigeon Forge and towns and since we’ve had to flood, it’s a shortcut for a lot of truckers, they think,” said Darrell Huskey, who has lived along the road for 60 years. 

“They don’t pay attention to the signs. They just come out. Well, they can go about two mile to come to the river, and it’s a one-lane bridge, and it’s a direct turn to the right. So, I mean, you know, there’s no way to turn it,” he said.

“We’re seeing that commercial motor vehicles are trying to find alternative routes throughout Sevier County to North Carolina, which is causing issues for our local law enforcement,“ said county Emergency Management Director Joe Ayers. “We’re really relying on traffic message boards that we put in specific areas throughout Sevier County and within the national park service.”

“I won’t say it’s been a great, big problem, but it’s a problem for everybody concerned, because they shut the road down. You know, when a lot of people come through here want to go over into the park, can’t get in the park,” Huskey added.