FAIRLEE — A multi-year project to stabilize a rock ledge on Interstate 91 is expected to be completed in mid-December.
The stabilization project was scheduled to be completed by Friday of this week, but is running a few weeks behind schedule, said Bruce Martin, Vermont Agency of Transportation project manager. The $15 million project is still on budget.
“Besides a few delays, this project is going fairly well with so much that needs to be done,” Martin said.
The I-91 southbound lane between exits 15 and 16 that is nearest to the rock ledge will remain closed until the project is completed.
“We will not be shutting down the interstate entirely like we’ve had to earlier this year,” Martin said.
Workers are currently in the process of attaching wire mesh sheets to the ledge, which is 700-feet wide and is as much as 400-feet tall, Martin said.
The process of installing the steel mesh is intense and time consuming. Workers must drill holes deep into the rock ledge, then install rebar posts “20 feet — sometimes further — into the slope itself,” Martin said. Workers then fill in the holes with grout.
All that work must be done before the mesh sheets — around 40 of them — can be helicoptered in.
“The steel material we’re using … it’s heavy,” Martin said, estimating that the mesh sheets are about 700 pounds each.
He noted that it is the largest rock cut in the state.
“We’re trying to take care of it now so we don’t have to take care of it in the future,” Martin said. “It’s going to be stable for a very, very long time.”
More information about the project is online at: https://resources.vtrans.vermont.gov/FactSheet/default.aspx?pin=24D016.