The winding, scenic South End Road in Plymouth has begun to erode after years of storms have flooded the land and water has rushed repeatedly up and over the bank.
Kelly Stettner, District Manager of the Ottauquechee Natural Resources Conservation District (ONRCD), spoke to the Standard about the erosion and how her organization plans to fix the issue in the coming years.
“What do you do when a steep slope around a lake is eroding into the water, undermining an already-narrow road? You look for options,” Stettner began. “That is exactly what the folks of the Farm & Wilderness Foundation in Plymouth did to address the slumping bank under the western end of South End Road.”
In early 2024, after noticing that gravel from the road was repeatedly washing into Woodward Reservoir during storms, and the ensuing erosion was undermining the stability and safety of the road, the conservation group known as Farm & Wilderness reached out to form a partnership with ONRCD in the hopes that they could help find a solution.
After obtaining funding from Watersheds United Vermont, the group began planning exactly how to fix this sinking road.
Stettner told the Standard, “We are in the very first stage of the process of repairing the South End Road. We just completed the preliminary 30% design — meaning that our contractor and engineering firm, DuBois & King, went out to evaluate the site, considered all conditions and challenges, and created a set of preliminary designs that explored the most reasonable and realistic alternatives.”
“The contractor looked at the real nitty gritty vacant soil, analyzed how deep beneath the bedrock we’d need to go to stabilize the bank, and what we needed to install to better manage storm water that washes onto the road.” After plans were drafted, ONRCD invited neighbors, residents, and stakeholders to come out to the site to walk along the road. “Boots on the ground is our motto,” Stettner added. “We reviewed everything. We took our plans to the Department of Historic Preservation to make sure we’re on track to fix the issue in a way that doesn’t threaten the endangered plants or road safety. We brought in the Plymouth Road Crew Chief to make sure our plans were feasible and sustainable for the town. Thankfully, South End Road is very much a back road that doesn’t experience a lot of traffic, and the people of Plymouth are eager and excited for our project.”
Stettner continued, “We have a few more stops along the way in this draft cycle before we can craft a formal proposal. Once a proposal is submitted, we will select a contractor who can do the actual work of rebuilding the roadbed to incorporate a more efficient drainage system. We are not envisioning a hard, rocky landscape. We want this construction to be as natural as possible and to incorporate plants and vegetation that will help stabilize the bank beneath the road and provide safety and prosperity to the surrounding habitat.”
The next phase Plymouth residents can expect to see is a formal blueprint proposal presented to the selectboard addressing how the erosion will be fixed. Once the final design has been presented to all stakeholders along with the associated cost estimates, additional grant funding will be sought to fund the implementation of the approved project.
For more on this, please see our Dec. 24 edition of the Vermont Standard.
