GAULEY BRIDGE, W.Va. — A state of emergency declared by Governor Jim Justice has removed some of the obstacles for road repairs in Kanawha and Fayette Counties from Monday’s high water.
The top priority for the Division of Highways is getting Route 39/16 back open after it was covered with debris Monday.
“There were six large mudslides that came down into the road and there were several other more minor rock falls that you might see after any normal storm,” said Division of Highways District Engineer Jim Moore.
The Fayette County DOH maintenance crew was working from Gauley Bridge toward the county line while the Nicholas County maintenance crew worked in the other direction. As of Tuesday afternoon the two teams were within site of one another on the last major slide. However, punching through proved to be difficult due to the saturation of the soil.
“We had hoped to have a hole in it Monday night, but the more the crews dug the more material would come off the hillside because it was so soupy,” Moore said.
They hoped to have the road back open by Tuesday evening, but full repairs are expected to take six weeks or more.
Crews are also working on secondary roads where there was major damage, particularly to Mount Carbon Road.
“A concrete abutment got washed out from a bridge. We have crews on scene to put in a temporary causeway so our bridge crews can rebuild that bridge,” he said.
Moore added they would also have considerable work to do to rebuild the road along Scrabble Creek where tons of rock and debris washed into the road and rerouted the waterway through the road bed.