Lambert’s Cove Road in Vineyard Haven reopened Wednesday morning after a daylong closure Tuesday from a washout in heavy rains. The road reopened Wednesday shortly before 11 a.m.
Lambert’s Cove Road in Vineyard Haven reopened Wednesday morning after a daylong closure Tuesday from a washout.
The road was closed Tuesday morning after heavy rains washed away half of the road’s sandy sub-base, leaving an unsupported crust of pavement stretching over a cavernous emptiness below.
Tisbury DPW was on the scene.
Tisbury DPW was on the scene.
It reopened Wednesday shortly before 11 a.m., after workers made interim repairs to the sub-base and surface, Tisbury department of public works director Kirk Metell said.
“It’s packed, it’s filled, it’s got a temporary top,” the DPW director said.
The washout took place parallel to the culvert where Smith Brook travels under the roadway, town administrator Jay Grande said.
“The deluge of rain last night was extreme,” Mr. Grande said Tuesday. “It looks like the water migrated into this section of the roadway and undermined it.”
Men and equipment were hard at work packing new fill into the eroded space. “We’re going to fill it in, compact it in and get the road back open,” Mr. Metell said at the time.
He said he was alerted by a motorist around 8 a.m. Tuesday that a small sinkhole had appeared on the side of the road.
“We discovered there was a much larger sinkhole that went halfway across the road,” he said.
While only half the road was affected, the town closed both lanes for safety reasons.
Speaking to the Gazette by phone Wednesday, Mr. Metell said the temporary repair will last until the town performs culvert work in the area next month.
“Until then, everything is ready to go. And now we’re out plowing snow,” he said. “Woo-hoo!”
Comments
This is what climate change
R Scott Patterson EdgartownThis is what climate change looks like. Last week I saw the ocean over wash beach road and the bike path multiple times. Highest water I have even seen for a non storm event in 30 years.
I agree, my thought exactly.
Carol Lampson formerly ChilmarkI agree, my thought exactly. This is the beginning of climate change. We must get off fossil fuels much, much faster.
I don't dispute climate
Paul Adler West TisburyI don't dispute climate change, but one can not read climate change into every event. The biggest recorded hurricane to hit the Vineyard was in 1938, many hundred year rain fall and temperature records have never been broken.....though I have seen the glaciers melting and I do drive an electric car and heat my home with solar.
This was not a hurricane,
R Scott Patterson EdgartownThis was not a hurricane, there is frequent flooding in places that never flooded before. What explanation could you possibly come up with other than climate change? We have multiple hundred year floods every single year, if it happens every year it's hard to call it a hundred year flood when we get them yearly.
Well, the road is closed
MICHAEL BELLISSIMO LCR WTWell, the road is closed again. Just sent this to Kirk:
Kirk- I appreciate the act of god rainfall that has compromised LCR since Monday. However, I am concerned over two things-
1. What is it about our (lack of) road maintenance that has caused this to happen in the first place.
2 . Aside from the inconvenience, this is a public safety issue should there be a fire or a medical emergency. I estimate an additional twenty minutes to get to someone who needs help.
All the website says is it is closed until further notice. That is hardly encouraging or informative. Please advise what's to be done and in what timeframe. Thank you.
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