UPDATE: The highway is open once again. Here's the latest news on the road.

For the second time this year, a landslide after heavy rains prompted officials to close part of Interstate 40 near the Tennessee-North Carolina state line.

This slide, however, was much smaller than the last, said David Uchiyama, spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Crews responding to the rockslide early Monday afternoon shut down both westbound lanes of I-40 at mile marker 7.5 in Haywood County, North Carolina, after finding three boulders in a ditch beside the road and several more on the mountainside that could pose a danger to motorists, Uchiyama said.

By 5:30 p.m., workers had moved the rocks, and one westbound lane had reopened.

"Traffic sitting in that queue will be allowed through, then traffic stopped at exit 20 will be allowed through," Uchiyama said. "It will remain in a one-lane pattern overnight."

Experts plan to visit the site Tuesday morning to help determine when the second lane can reopen.

The rockslide follows a much larger landslide in late February, which occurred in the same area and stopped all traffic on I-40 near the state line. The interstate reopened after six days, but traffic was restricted to one lane in each direction for several weeks as crews worked to clear more than 10,000 tons of debris.

After that landslide, workers installed rock anchors and wire mesh along the route, built a retaining wall, resurfaced the road and poured a new concrete median.

Reach Travis Dorman at 865-342-6315 or at travis.dorman@knoxnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @travdorman.