Heavy rains wash out South Rumford bridge

by Amy Chapman and Bruce Farrin
     
     REGION -- Heavy weekend rains, on top of the already saturated ground, washed out several roads, closed another and even took out a small bridge.
     
     Road crews were kept busy working to reopen closed roads and preventing others from washing out.
     
     But nothing could be done to keep a 15-foot bridge from washing away over Thurston Brook on the state-maintained South Rumford Road, a short distance past the Kenrick Thibodeau farm.
     
     Herb Noyes, Bridge Maintenance for the Maine Dept. of Transportation's Region 3 office in Dixfield, said, "It looks like it will be closed for awhile."
     
     He said preliminary estimates of the cost to remove and replace the bridge will be about $500,000. The task now will be to quickly develop a plan, including what kind of bridge to install, and submit it to Augusta to have it placed in the state's bridge capital program.
     
     Noyes noted there will not be any federal funding available because they only recognize bridges with a 20-foot clear span. This bridge was only 15 feet.
     
     A few miles away, a portion of the Andover Road washed out, forcing the road to be closed.
     
     Rumford Public Works Director Andy Russell said that fortunately for Rumford, both these areas are state roads. In the case of the Andover Road, he noted the town was fortunate that a sewer line in the washout was not exposed.
     
     However, there were other roads the town crew will be making repairs on, which will take away from their schedule, including work on the Hancock Street project. These include washed out shoulders on the Milton Road, Swain Road and the Martin Road, various spots on Hall Hill, Pennacook Road and Eaton Hill Road.
     
     Russell then said a bad area appears to be on High Street, where water may have "undermined the tar."
     
     In Greenwood, Town Manager Kim Sparks said several roads were impassable on Sunday morning, including the Howe Hill Road, the Sheepskin Bog Road, the East Twitchell Pond Road, and Westleigh Road. Other town roads, including Cross Road and Oak Road, while still passable, were down to
     
     one lane.
     
     Town crews, as well as a crew from Cross Excavation in Bethel were working to restore access to the roads on Sunday afternoon.
     
     On Monday, Sparks said the town was working to come up with a figure for repairing the town's damaged roads and expected to have estimates shortly. She said damage in Greenwood wasn't limited to road wash-outs, but had also affected area businesses.
     
     “Mt. Abram Ski Area estimates that the damage to their ski area is $500,000,” Sparks said.
     
     She also noted that Arthur Parks, owner of Littlefield Beaches Campground on South Pond, had several flooded campsites and had had to cancel reservations.
     
     Roads in Peru, where the storm struck a glancing blow, didn't fare as badly as those in Rumford and Greenwood.
     
     “We've had some minor washes, but no actual road or lane closures,” said Road Commissioner Joe Roach on Monday.
     
     However, he cautioned, “If it continues to rain, that may change.” He urged people to use caution when driving on roads whose edges may have been undermined by rushing water.
     
     “They should avoid driving on or near the road shoulders,” he said. “It looks like we have another week of rain predicted, which could make things worse.”
     
     Dixfield, too, escaped major damage from the weekend rains.
     
     “No major issues,” said Public Works Administrative Assistant Darlene Brann. “Really, we fared quite well here.”
     
     In Canton, Town Administrator Kathy Hutchins said, “We were lucky. We didn't get the prolonged heavy rain or thunderstorms that some places got.”
     
     Of the temporary dam, which was repaired last week after being undermined by rushing water from a storm the previous week, she said, “It's working really well.”
     
     On Monday, Oxford County Emergency Director Scott Parker said, "Based upon what we've heard, there's not going to be enough damage to declare for FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funding. You'd have to get to about $1.5 million and the damage was mostly restricted to a small area."
     
     He did, however, want to remind towns to update their five-year hazard mitigation plan with the county. The idea is to identify areas that have problems, such as ditches or lack culverts, and may be vulnerable in situations like these heavy rains.
     
     When FEMA funds are administered, some of that money goes into a mitigation fund to address these areas, "so we don't have to continue wasting dollars (on these places)," said Parker, adding that mitigation monies have been used recently in Dixfield, Buckfield, Newry and Norway.