BURRILLVILLE – A Rhode Island Department of Transportation work truck responding to a call reporting icing on a state roadway on Wednesday, Jan. 17 hit a snag when the vehicle fell through the pavement and got stuck in the deteriorated street.
The truck was traveling in the area of 170 Old Wallum Lake Road and treating the area when the driver’s side rear tire fell through the pavement, according to RIDOT spokesman Charles St. Martin.
“It appears a culvert running under the road was deteriorated, and the force of excessive stormwater runoff from the recent heavy rainfall eroded the soil under the pavement,” St. Martin explained.
St. Martin said that a wrecker had to be called in to pull the truck out of the roadway.
“It was able to drive away with only minor damage,” he said.
Burrillville Police Col. Stephen Lynch said his department was alerted of the problem with a phone call at 6:15 p.m.
“The call was to advise us of a closing of the road at the location of the sinkhole,” Lynch said.
Steel tops were put in place to cover the hole for the overnight and a repair crew was scheduled to start work today to replace the pipe and repair the road. St. Martin said that repairs will be made initially with gravel, with the road to be paved as soon as temperatures allow.
If your private road is being affected by the rain, it doesn’t sound like it was designed very well. Hard to see why the state should address that.
Meanwhile, on Wallum Lake Rd and Crystal Terrace, residents had to pay..twice..to have their private road repaired. The road was ruined by rain water run off from a property across the street from Crystal Terrace. The town directed residents of Crystal Terrace to call the state, as Wallum Lake is a state maintained highway. The residents did call the state. The state said it would send someone out to inspect the damage to their road. The residents of Crystal Terrace are still waiting to hear if the state did, in factn send someone out, as the resident who made the call never heard back from the state. The private road repair cost the residents of Crystal Terrace $1,00.00 and $4,00.00 respectively.
Maybe if a state owned vehicle would have been damaged from the condition of Wallum Lake and the butting of it to Crystal Terrace, the residents of Crystal Terrace would have seen just as quick of a response to their problem with Wallum Lake road’s rain water runoff that needa to be redirected?