(ASHEVILLE) -- North Carolina has no hand in cleaning up the rock slide blocking traffic on I-40 west, but it still has a job to do. Julia Casadonte with the North Carolina Department of Transportation said since the rock slide is across the border in Tennessee, officials there are taking out the contracts and consulting their experts to clean it up.

All lanes of I-40 West remain closed near mile marker 20, west of Asheville in Haywood County. Tennessee officials said Thursday morning that they hope to have one lane open by February 7.

Traffic traveling from North Carolina to Tennessee should take I-40 West to I-240 West (Exit 53b) in Asheville, to I-26 West (Exit 4a).  Follow I-26 West from Asheville to I-81 South (Exit 8a) in Tennessee, back to I-40.

Casadonte said there is a constant risk for disasters like this. "Anytime you build a road through the mountains where you are cutting through the mountains, there is always a risk of these kinds of potential rock slide events happening.  It's not the first time this has happened in the Pigeon River Gorge."

She added that with the interstate closed in Haywood County, the DOT's big job is to get the word out about alternate routes.

(Thanks to: WWNC)