HAYWOOD COUNTY – Whitewater outfit companies along the Pigeon River need to be open by Memorial Day in order to have a successful season.
That seemed impossible after Helene.
The storm surged the Pigeon River, undermining Interstate 40 and damaging a Duke Energy hydroelectric power plant and Waterverville Road near the state line. Its impacts continued downstream, destroying buildings in Hartford, Tenn.
Living — having a roof, power and drinkable water — was the priority over rafting.
Thankfully, earlier this year, N.C. Department of Transportation engineers Kenny McCourt and Daniel Ross provided hope — an idea and a plan for the rafting businesses to open in time and save the season. They devised a value engineering plan that benefits NCDOT, Duke Energy and the whitewater outfitters on the Pigeon River.
“It could have been the end of us if we couldn’t facilitate rafting trips this year,” said Lacy Bramlett, secretary of the Pigeon River Outfitters Association, which comprises eight companies that guide guests on rafting trips down the river.
Collaborative Planning
NCDOT awarded an $8.4 million contract to Whaley Construction to replace two bridges on Waterville Road just a couple hundred yards from the state line. Construction operations were set to begin in October. Helene postponed those plans and, obviously, more.
McCourt and Ross gathered the interested agencies — Duke Energy, Cocke County (Tenn.) officials and whitewater representatives — and presented an idea: For NCDOT and its contractor to build a new boat launch on Duke Energy property, downstream of the power plant under a Cocke County bridge that leads to Waterville Road.
The plan benefits all parties:
• NCDOT saves approximately $1 million in construction costs by having Whaley build both bridges at the same time.
• Duke Energy benefits from the launch being placed downstream of its reconstruction efforts.
• Whitewater businesses — and private boaters — have a full facility to launch and remain in business.
“We took aerial images of what they used as a boat launch before, asked about the basic necessities and details too, to figure out what would make it work and what would make it nice,” McCourt said. “We asked Duke Energy for their input and the county too.”
All parties agreed, and all parties went to work — for the benefit of everybody.
The temporary launch has space for 10 busses plus private vehicle parking and signage directing visitors, and the river has a channel for safe boat loading and launching.
“They started work in like mid-March and had it ready for us on April 1,” Bramlett said. “We love what’s been created for us. It helps us plan for businesses, our employees and how to generate revenue this year.”
Rafting Hot Spot
The local rafting industry is impressive, with an estimated $6 million in annual revenue. The Pigeon River has ranked among the top five most popular whitewater locations in the country for the past 10 years. As Bramlett put it, more people pay to go down the Pigeon River than all but the nearby Ocoee and Nantahala rivers, and the White River in Arkansas.
More than 176,000 people rafted down the Pigeon River last year. In 2020, that number topped 210,000 people — tops in the nation.
“We’ve all had to flex since the storm,” Bramlett said. “NCDOT, working with Duke Energy and the county, has put us back in place to facilitate the same number of users we had last year.”
Bramlett, director of whitewater operations at Ober Mountain, stated rafting is the No. 2 source of revenue for Cocke County after property taxes.
“At the lowest rate all outfitters could use to take people rafting, we’d combine to roughly do $6 million in revenue,” Bramlett said. “Bigger picture, just having I-40 open is huge for our community. Opening that line between North Carolina and Tennessee has helped us tremendously."