FAIRLEE — A portion of Route 5 in Fairlee has been closed due to a rock slide.
The closure — which began after 1 p.m. — is just south of the Bradford, Vt., town line between Sawyer Mountain Drive, and Mountain Road in Fairlee, according to a Vermont Alert sent out by the Vermont Department of Public Safety shortly after 1:30 p.m.
“The road will remain closed until (the Agency of Transportation) can get a drone to look at the ledge to make sure no more rock is going to come down,” Fairlee Police Chief Wayne Briggs said in a phone interview. State Police also responded to the scene.
Briggs said a call came in from dispatch around 1:15 p.m. and he responded to the area, known as “The Ledges,” shortly after.
“I found a large piece of ledge about half the size of my vehicle blocking the northbound lane,” Briggs said in a phone interview shortly after 2 p.m. “Rock was still actively falling at that time so the road was completely shut down.”
No one was injured and no vehicles were damaged, Briggs said. A utility pole was damaged.
The area where the rockslide took place is in a relatively unpopulated part of Route 5, Briggs said.
“It’s railroad track on one side and ledge on the other,” he said.
Debris — including tree branches, smaller pieces of rock and dirt — was scattered in the southbound lane, but vehicles could still technically pass through, Briggs said. Officials from the Vermont Agency of Transportation had cleared the debris out of the roadway by 2:10 p.m.
While Briggs does not know for certain why the rockslide happened, the current freeze/thaw cycle — where temperatures get above freezing during the day and return to below freezing at night — could have played a role. Water can get into cracks in the rocks and freeze, leading to more pressure on the rocks.
“This time of year you want to take extra caution if you’re driving past any large rock formations,” Briggs said. “Keep your eyes open. This can happen any place, any time.”