The flood last Sunday put a beating on roads in and around Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
Cold Run Valley Road After the June 3 Flood
Cold Run Valley Road — the road to Coolfont — was one of those hardest hit.
A river ran through it and opened a gaping hole, closing the road to through traffic.
“It was washed out pretty severely,” said Lee Thorne, the District Five Engineer at the West Virginia Division of Highways.
Thorne said that he’s going to talk with Morgan County supervisor Rodney Crowell soon to see if they can do a temporary fix to allow one lane by — but if not, it might take two to three weeks before the road is open to traffic.
“He’s going to look to see if we can open it up to one way traffic,” Thorne said. “We already had plans to put in a box culvert. The culvert is on site. It was moved in before this heavy rain. It might take a week to set in the boxes. But there are so many variables — weather, equipment breakdowns. We could do it in a week’s time — at ten to twelve hour days. But it might take two or three weeks unless we can do something temporary.”
Thorne said that the Powerhouse Bridge could be open by tomorrow.
And the Rockford Bridge and Route 127 in Hampshire County could be open by Friday.
“The majority of our guys are at Route 127,” Thorne said. “Everything is looking good to have it opened by Friday.”
“We’re getting pothole complaints from everywhere,” Thorne said. “We are trying to get emergency access to people. Potholes are something we are going to put a little lower on our priority list until we can get the major things done.”
“Sometimes we are doing temporary fixes to get people in and out, then do a more permanent fix later. We’re trying to restore access to allow people to pass through.”