Duxbury Road Updates | Jan. 7
January 7 2024 | By Waterbury Roundabout Duxbury Road Work | Jan. 7
This communication was sent out from town officials late Sunday morning, Jan. 7:
Unfortunately, they tried to plow upper Camels Hump Road this morning with the pickup truck with little success. The fear is that we will damage the truck because of the conditions on the road. Residents are advised to please drive with caution at this time. The current forecast of warmer weather and rain is not one we look forward to.
There are a couple of rough patches on Ward Hill we were unable to address last week. Residents are encouraged to slow down, there is not much we can do at this time.
We will keep everyone posted.
Duxbury Road Work | Jan. 5
Duxbury Selectboard Chair Richard Charland shared the following announcement on Friday evening, Jan. 5:
The Road Crew finished the week with the majority of all of the roads in town passable. Given the conditions we had, residents should be able to travel without dealing with the frozen mudholes we were left with at the beginning of the week.
Brian met with Percy Construction to assess the hole on upper Camels Hump Road. The location is a very tenuous one with a bank that continues to slide toward Ridley Brook. This was a major problem area in 2011 after the spring storm and Irene. The plan is to mobilize next week when we have a slight warm up in the weather and to excavate in the middle of the road. They will then cover (plug) the separation in the culvert with road fabric to stop the gravel from being washed down into and out of the culvert and then backfill. The conditions are not ideal to be excavating the section of culvert that has separated. The goal is to make the road passable for the balance of the winter.
The crew is aware of conditions on Sunrise and will address as soon as they can. Their efforts this week were focused on making the roads passable for plowing in anticipation of this weekend’s storm as well as what is forecast for Tuesday into Wednesday of next week.
Road crews would prefer cold weather to keep the roads frozen and solid throughout the winter. The warm ups and rain that we’ve seen and is possible next week results in what we had happen last week. Additionally, wet snow is difficult to plow even with our tandems. We are not a town with flat roads, most of our roads are on the side of mountains increasing the load on the vehicles.
On behalf of the Selectboard and the residents of the town a sincere thank you to Brian, Eric and Randy for what they accomplished Tuesday through Friday. They returned to the garage to get the trucks setup with plows and wings to be ready.
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Duxbury Road Work | Jan. 4
Duxbury Selectboard Chair Richard Charland shared the following announcement on Thursday evening, Jan. 4:
Currently, there are two roads left to be addressed by the Road Crew: Dowsville Road and Turner Hill Road. The crew hopes to address both of these tomorrow. Camels Hump Road (below Scrabble Hill Road), Scrabble Hill Road, Mountain View Road, Crossett Hill Road, Welch Road and Morse Road have all been repaired.
The situation on upper Camels Hump Road where a hole has opened up due to a culvert separation will be evaluated tomorrow. The outlet side of the culvert has dropped approximately 3 feet pulling apart the culvert causing the separation. We will have a better idea on the repair tomorrow.
In the interim, for those living on that section we recommend traveling on the uphill side of the road. We ask everyone to please check their levels of fuel oil and propane, we believe fuel trucks can access their customers if needed by traveling on the uphill side. We should have some idea tomorrow what the schedule for repairs will be and will post accordingly.
Concern has been expressed about plowing and sanding this section with the current storm forecast for this weekend. I have spoken with Highway Foreman Brian Gibbs and the crew will use the town pick-up truck in the interim. Forecast for the weekend storm currently puts us on the outer edge. Hopefully this will be the case. Another disturbance is forecast for Tuesday/Wednesday of next week, this one a combination of snow turning to rain, stay tuned, we really don’t need a warm spell with rain.
Unfortunately, by the time we are done with these repairs, we will have used up the bulk of our gravel inventory. Please keep this in mind when we deal with the Town Budget for FY24/25 in the near future.
As always, please forward any information on areas we should look to address, questions, suggestions etc. I have it on good authority, spring is around the corner.
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Duxbury Road Work | Jan. 2
Duxbury Selectboard Chair Richard Charland shared the following announcement on Tuesday evening, Jan. 2:
The Road Crew started the New Year putting the roads in town back together. The result of the warm temperatures and rain at the end of December left us with numerous mud holes. The hope was that a bit of cold weather would firm up the roads and a hopeful warm spell would allow the grader to even things out. Scratch that idea with temperatures in the 20s just barely making it into the 30s later on Tuesday.
The crew is hauling gravel that is stored in our pit, filling in the ruts and holes and grading as best as possible.
The worst of the roads is Camels Hump Road where the repair work took them just shy of the Pitts Bridge just below Scrabble Hill Road. Their plan is to complete repairs on Camels Hump Road to Scrabble Hill Road and then deal with the section of Scrabble Hill Road after Mountain View.
The section of Camels Hump Road above Scrabble Hill is being placed on hold due to a hole in the road caused by a separated culvert. The town does not have the equipment to tackle this repair as originally thought. The unknown scope of the damage also currently limits the trucks we can send up there because of weight limitations.
The plan is to then move to Crossett Hill Road, Turner Hill Road, Welch Road, Dowsville and Ward Hill. They hope to address all of the problem areas as quickly as possible with their eye on a forecast calling for snow Thursday/Friday and a possible Nor’easter forecast for the weekend. It is critical to get things smoothed out in order to prevent damage to the plows and trucks.
Hopefully, we will have sufficient gravel in the pit to accommodate these repairs. We will keep everyone informed as to how things are progressing. Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding.
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