Charlotte works to start repairs on road left impassable by July flooding

CHARLOTTE, Vt. (WCAX) – More than four months after devastating flooding this summer, some Vermont roads are still under construction. The Champlain Valley’s heavily traveled Spear Street still has a chasm in Charlotte forcing drivers to detour.

“We certainly have heard from a lot of locals and a lot of business owners that you know they would like to see this project move forward as quickly as we could get it done,” Charlotte Town Administrator Nathaniel Bareham said.

A massive 10-foot culvert was blown out during flooding on July 10.

Within days, the town began assessing what needed to happen, not just to repair the road, but to prevent a similar washout in the next deluge.

“We worked closely with the engineers to ensure that this would withstand the next storm of a similar nature. It’s not only capacity for a water flow, but it’s also the ability for it to weather debris. Debris was the biggest issue that we saw here,” Bareham said.

The repair plan will nearly double the capacity of the culvert and include a debris catch.

The town has worked for months on the planning, engineering and funding process to ensure construction would be covered by state and federal funding. Construction is now set to begin in early December on repairs that could cost $1 million.

“We are aiming to have everything completed before April 6th. And if we’re able to do that, that would be no cost to the town. So everything would be fully covered. That is our goal and we’re working steadily toward that,” Bareham said.

We weren’t able to get a number from the state on how many other local roads around Vermont are awaiting repairs from this summer’s flooding.

VTrans tells us no state and federal roads remain impassable, but there are nine heavily damaged areas yet to get a permanent fix.

“It is a lot more engineering to go into these larger structures and we want to whatever fix we design for these repairs, we want them to be resilient, which a lot of times that means take a step back, really look at what has changed, what we need to plan for so that our permanent fix will withstand any future events that occur,” said Ashley Atkins, the VTrans district maintenance deputy director.

The state says some projects are so large that permanent fixes won’t be finished for months or even years.

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