White River Junction
Mike Morris Jr., a maintenance worker for the Vermont Agency of Transportation District 4, said a temporary culvert has been installed, allowing water to drain and making it possible for emergency vehicles to pass back and forth along that stretch of Route 5, though Morris said it’s “not stable enough for a lot of traffic.”
Meanwhile, motorists were looking for information about official detours, and some in passenger cars looped along Rustic Road and Neal Road to get around the road closing.
The stone and concrete culvert, which dated to the 1930s, collapsed on Wednesday night due to a blockage. Some 3,800 vehicles a day travel the route.
Jason Lemieux, who lives on Clay Hill Road in Hartland, said he typically drives on Route 5 two or three times a day from his home to his office in White River Junction, and stopped at the construction site for information about alternative routes. As of mid-afternoon on Friday, detour signs were not in place, but Morris said VTrans was working to rectify the issue.
“There isn’t any clear information available about if the road is open or what a good detour is or what detours are open,” said Lemieux, who was going to an appointment in Lebanon.
The informal shortcut on Neal and Rustic Road is narrow and has a sharp turn, and could handle cars and pickup trucks, but not bigger trucks, in good weather. The road turns to gravel in one section, and as winter weather comes in, also could pose problems.
VTrans officials have said the detour between Hartland and White River Junction involves taking Interstate 91 or Clay Hill Road in North Hartland toward Route 4 in Quechee.
Former Hartford Selectman Chuck Wooster owns Sunrise Farm on Route 5 and farms land on both sides of the culvert. He said he learned about the issue on Route 5 on Thursday evening as he was trying to travel from one parcel to the other.
He said road crews were pumping water over Neal Road on Thursday, which forced him to take the longer detour over Clay Hill Road. He said the longer trip added about 20 minutes to the commute.
On Friday, Neal Road was open to thru-traffic, and traveling between the two farms only added a couple of minutes to the drive.
Luckily, Wooster said, this time of year is the slow season for farmers, so the road closing — which could last four weeks — isn’t too much of a problem for him.
“It would have been different if we were at full harvest,” he said.
Ben Bradley, who lives in Thetford, was hauling construction debris to the transfer center, which is south of the culvert, in a pickup truck on Friday. He said the closing added more than 20 minutes to his trip, via Interstate 91.
“Of course I’d rather I didn’t have to go to Hartland, but it’s not going to be too much of a problem,” Bradley said.
Morris said a long-term fix is going to require big machinery, a job that will have to be contracted out. The project likely will be put out to bid soon, he said.
Morris said VTrans crews were working to round up detours signs. He said that state and town officials were ironing out official alternatives routes while the section of Route 5 is closed.
Abby Kessler can be reached at abbykessler29@gmail.com.