WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The portion of Gates Street that connects Fairview Terrace to downtown White River Junction has been closed “indefinitely” because of problems with the retaining wall on the steep road, town officials said, and motorists will have to take a detour in place of the shortcut.
“This was authorized by the Selectboard two months ago because of the deteriorating condition of the road. … It just took us this long to get all the signs for the detour due to supply chain issues,” Public Works Director Hannah Tyler said on Monday. “We do need to put planning in place to evaluate the roadbed and what’s causing the movement in the walls.”
The move comes around two months after the Selectboard voted to close Gates Street on the recommendation of Town Manager Tracy Yarlott-Davis with support from Tyler. The goal was to close the street within a couple of weeks, but the town was unable to get enough signs during that timeframe due to supply shortages, Tyler said. The pedestrian walkway will remain open, but motorists are being encouraged to take Sykes Mountain Avenue to South Main Street to get to downtown.
Tyler said money for a planning and design study to address the problem was not budgeted in the current fiscal year “and it’s a pretty significant investment,” so town officials are waiting for a directive from the Selectboard.
There is a small amount of money in the current year’s budget for minor repairs to Gates Street, Selectboard Chairman Dan Fraser said. The town of Hartford is about to start the budget planning process for fiscal year 2023 and it is not clear yet whether that budget will contain funding for Gates Street.
“We hope to reopen the road at an undetermined time in the future,” Fraser wrote in an email.
The Selectboard originally closed Gates Street in December 2017 due to concerns that the road would collapse. In September 2018, it was reopened to one-way traffic. In the 2020 budget, $200,000 had been earmarked for a planning and design study, but the former interim town manager suggested diverting that money to the VA Cutoff Bridge project. The Selectboard agreed to his request.
“I can kind of see where he was going in that there had to be a plan forward, to allocate that significant amount of money, we have to at least have some sort of plan for it,” Yarlott-Davis said.
The 400-foot stretch of road has continued to deteriorate. The railings on the pedestrian walkway are rusted and bent in some places. Vegetation thrives through the cracks. The pavement is uneven, with deep dips. Patches of black asphalt put down for repairs stick out on the gray roadway. The stone retaining wall holding it is crumbling in places with the concrete blocks atop are cracked in places. The side that was open to one-way traffic looks marginally better. There are a few potholes and not as many asphalt patches. A piece of graffiti on its bordering concrete wall reads “I left a/leaf/in her bed.”
“We’re not just talking about sort of scraping the type layer off and re-asphalting it,” Yarlott-Davis said. “We’re talking extensive infrastructure work so we need to know what we should do, what the best, safest solution is.”
Around a decade ago when the town was first considering repairs to the road, estimates ranged from $1 million to $4 million, Tyler said. With inflation, those costs are likely to have risen.
“Again I’m kind of awaiting some guidance from how the board would really like to proceed because it’s a really contentious project. There’s a lot of opinions out there,” Tyler said. “It’s tough because there is a group who is advocating for less usage of that road as a cut-through or as a ‘commuter route’ into downtown, but then there’s also a group of people who feel pretty strongly that that’s the connection for their neighborhood to our vibrant downtown.”
It is unclear at this time whether the town can use money received through the American Rescue Plan to put toward Gates Street, Yarlott-Davis said.
“It’s not completely out of the remote possibility, but we definitely want to make sure we know before we think about it too much,” she said.
Fire and EMS services will not be impacted, said Hartford Fire Chief Scott Cooney.
“We’ve been avoiding it since the initial shutdown,” he said. “When the initial closure took place we already evaluated steps on accessing those areas.”
In the meantime, Yarlott-Davis is advising people to use caution and is hopeful the town will find a solution.
“I really want it to be safe. I want it to be safe for everyone who uses it,” Yarlott-Davis said. “I don’t know what that looks like, but I want it to be safe and right now it’s worrisome to both drive it and to also walk it.”
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
